Other states are loosening, cutting back on occupational licensing. Why not California?

They didn’t agree on a lot, however one coverage concern the place the Obama and Trump administrations agreed was the necessity for states to re-examine their techniques of occupational licensing.

Many states throughout the nation have heeded that decision and brought steps to do this. However not right here in California.

Final week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia signed a “Common Licensure Invoice” which is able to permit employees in 85 totally different occupational classes from anyplace within the nation who’ve been licensed to work in different state and have carried out licensed work for 3 years to work in Virginia with out having to undergo the headache of attempting to get licensed in Virginia as nicely.  “Common license recognition will help in resolving employee shortages whereas on the similar time benefiting shoppers by means of decreased prices of products and companies,” mentioned Gov. Youngkin.

Likewise, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu final month referred to as for the elimination of licensing necessities for 34 occupations, reforms to state licensing boards and common recognition for employees already licensed out-of-state.  This proposal was included as a part of Gov. Sununu’s price range proposal by which he affirmed a dedication to “breaking down regulatory boundaries, decreasing the price of entry to do enterprise right here.”

All of those states are following the lead of California’s neighbor, Arizona. In 2019, then-Gov. Doug Ducey signed into regulation, with bipartisan assist, laws implementing common occupational license recognition. Already, over 6,500 licensed employees from different states have taken the chance to get their licenses acknowledged in Arizona,

“Over 400 physicians and 170 doctor assistants have been safely licensed by the Arizona Medical Board,” famous the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute final month. “The state’s Registrar of Contractors has accepted over 2,200 licenses for quite a few occupations within the trades. 1000’s of further employees have benefitted from common recognition, together with a whole bunch of behavioral well being examiners and quite a few engineers, cosmetologists, and actual property brokers and brokers, amongst many others.”

A report by the Frequent Sense Institute estimated the regulation may gain advantage Arizona’s gross home product by not less than least $1.5 billion over time.

None of that is significantly earth-shattering. But it surely’s one thing that California continues to tug its ft on. California has lengthy had probably the most in depth and onerous licensing techniques within the nation, with predictable penalties.

Because the state’s personal nonpartisan Little Hoover Fee has famous, one-in-five California require a license to work. Licensing, in keeping with the fee, “slows development in these occupations, inhibits interstate motion, and acts as a barrier to many in search of upward job mobility.”

In 2018, the Institute for Justice estimated that California’s system of licensing prices the state 195,917 jobs and billions in decreased financial output and misallocated assets.That very same yr, the Archbridge Institute discovered that elevated authorities licensing of low- and middle-income jobs was related to decreased financial mobility and decreased job swimming pools.

California ought to on the very least undertake a complete assessment of which occupations are at present licensed by authorities boards. If there’s no severe public well being or security justification for licensing, the state ought to drop licensing necessities. If a employee is licensed out-of-state, it must be very easy for that employee to work right here. It’s a pro-worker, pro-consumer, pro-liberty method California may simply take if it wished to. Which implies…it in all probability gained’t occur for some time.

Sal Rodriguez could be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com