In Idaho, the average person is excluded from enjoying the rewards of many professions. The barrier isn’t their ability or willingness to do the job, it is government interference and obstruction that keeps them out. Many of these occupations do not require an extraordinary intelligence or a university degree, they don’t require years of experience to start working and they begin earning a good wage right away. On average, you must pay the government of Idaho $164 per year and prove that you’ve attended an approved school (often very expensive) for hundreds of hours, full time before you even qualify to pay the extortion money to the state! This removes the possibility of upward mobility to most families and many young people just starting out. Changing careers is nearly impossible if you must stop working and attend an expensive school for hundreds or thousands of hours and then come up with the cost of licensure on top of that.
For example,
A sheet metal worker must pay the state $395, take 2 exams be 18 years or older and have 2190 hours (6 years) of very low paying experience.
A Cosmetologist must pay $186, attend an approved school for 2000 hours (at a cost of roughly $20,000)
A shampooer (someone who washes your hair) must pay $186 and be trained for 900 hours!
An EMT must pay $80 and have 35 hours of schooling.
Compare the relative hazard of an EMT and a shampooer to public health and safety and its difficult to justify the licensure requirement on those grounds. The real purpose is to provide a barrier to entry, keeping the available pool of labor small and driving up prices to consumers through artificial scarcity. It is a government run protection racket for established professionals so they do not face too much competition or innovation from new entrants.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 30% of US Workers are unbale to perform their vocation without an expensive and highly regulated license issued by their state or federal government. Furthermore, we learned that those licenses make people highly vulnerable to the whim of government. When Covid 19 arrived, the government chose to end commerce and declare many people to be non-essential. They lacked the real power to prevent people from engaging in their trades except for the threat of revoking their license and ruining them financially if they refused to comply.
In Idaho, we have made some moves towards relieving the burden of occupational licensure, but it took a lawsuit by a group of our African refugee community that wanted to offer hair braiding services, a traditional and cultural practice in their homeland, a skill in which they could be considered experts, to really bring the folly and waste of licensing to the public.
I propose an end to nearly all occupational licensing. I acknowledge that physicians, dentists and a few other professions that have a direct and immediate affect on our well being may have valid justification for some oversight. The public at large does not benefit from most occupations that are currently licensed. This could be provided by the private sector through insurance costs, professional organizations and reputation but, until a well trusted system of self-regulation is enacted, continued government licensure may be a valid temporary measure. If we repealed “right to work” labor unions could easily provide oversight to their respective professions. It is time to allow the marketplace to provide the services desired at a market rate determined by quality and competition, not government colluding with cartels to set prices.