If the Old Dominion truly has the best business climate in the United States, as many Virginians like to think it does, that status surely can be attributable only to the many and perverse way in which other states screw things up. The Commonwealth does so many things wrong that, viewing ourselves in isolation, it would be easy to imagine that we have among the worst business climates.
A case in point is the regulation of professions and occupations. The Institute for Justice has just published a report, “License to Work,” that compares how heavily 102 occupations are regulated across the 50 states. Lo and behold, Virginia ranks as the 11th most most broadly and onerously licensed state in the country, regulating occupations from athletic trainers and earth drillers to barbers, skin care specialists, animal control officers, upholsterers, taxidermists, fire alarm installers and milk samplers.
Virginia’s regulation of preschool teachers is the most onerous in the country, requiring education/experience equivalent to 1,825 days and passage of an exam. Teacher assistants require 730 days education/experience.
Nearly one in three Americans work in an occupation regulated the state through licensure. Louisiana, Arizona and California top the list for the breadth and strictness of occupational regulation.
Regulations are invariably justified by the need for consumer protection. But only a handful of occupations are regulated in all states, with no apparent harm to the public in non-licensed states. “Such inconsistencies give good reason to doubt that many licensing schemes are necessary,” states the report.
“If Governor McDonnell and Virginia lawmakers really want to spur entrepreneurial growth,” writes report co-author Dick Carpenter in the Jefferson Policy Journal, “they should add to their to-do list the reduction or elimination of licensure burdens that do little more than protect some people from competition by keeping others out of work.”
— JAB
