Arizona's The First State To Have An Attack Of Sanity On Accepting Out-Of-State Occupational Licenses
Eric Boehm at Reason says it perfectly:
Someone who's trained as a nurse in California doesn't magically forget those skills when they cross the border into Arizona. The same is true for plumbers, electricians, makeup artists, and pretty much any person working in any other licensed profession--and Arizona might soon be the first state to stop pretending otherwise.A bill introduced Monday in the Arizona General Assembly would allow anyone with an occupational license from a different state to automatically qualify for the same license in Arizona without having to retake classes and pass tests again--though they would have to pay a fee to the state board that administers the license, and would have to demonstrate that they were in good standing with the licensing authorities in their previous state. So-called "universal licensing recognition" would make it easier for licensed workers to move to Arizona and would do away with time-consuming and expensive requirements for license-holders who want to move across state lines.
How it stands elsewhere:
As it stands, most licenses aren't transferable between states, and research in recent years has shown a link between growing levels of occupational licensing--more than one-third of all jobs in the United States is now subject to some form of licensing, up from just one in 10 jobs in 1970--and a decline in workers' mobility.Nationwide, workers whose jobs require a state-issued license lose out on between $178 million and $711 million they could have earned by moving to a different state, according to a 2017 paper by Janna Johnson and Morris Kleiner, a pair of labor economists at the University of Minnesota. Johnson and Kleiner examined 22 professions that are licensed across most states, and found that workers in those professions were, on average, 36 percent less likely to move across state lines than workers in non-licensed professions.
"For example, a licensed public schoolteacher with a decade of teaching experience in New Hampshire is not legally allowed to teach in an Illinois public school without completing significant new coursework and apprenticeships," they wrote.
Asinine -- and guess who's for those protections: I'd guess those already licensed in those states.
Consider that you don't have to get remarried if you move from Michigan to Montana.
Actually, no. Insurance regulators in every state, including my home state of Texas, will grant an insurance license to a non-resident individual without an exam, provided they are licensed in their resident, or home, state. This is called reciprocity, and it's the basis for non-resident licensing in every state and territory. Non-residents moving into Texas also qualify for the exam waiver, although Texas requires them to be fingerprinted and to surrender their original license. This has been going on for decades, and was formalized by Texas in 2003. Every state and territory has signed on to that agreement, and the system works very well indeed. Texas has so refined the system that non-resident applicants may apply online, with a response guaranteed within 24 hours.
roadgeek at June 6, 2019 3:29 AM
It might exist for insurance but not for other practices.
Amy Alkon at June 6, 2019 6:06 AM
The article made it seem as though AZ just invented licensing reciprocity, which is simply not the case. I do agree that not using reciprocity is insanity, but there's a great deal of rent-seeking and protection of craft cartels going on. The Texas lege just ended their session, but before they did they abolished the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners. Oh! The hue and cry. The gnashing of teeth. It was as though the sky were falling in on Texas plumbers. The plumbing cartel immediately trotted out the default argument of "Safety! Gas lines in hospitals! Raw sewage running down the streets!" and so forth. They didn't ask Governor Abbott to "think of the children", which was a shock. Governor Abbott claimed he could fix the situation, but he has no authority to do anything; such authority is reserved to the lege. It will be interesting to see what happens. No, to my knowledge the Plumbing board does not grant reciprocity to non-resident plumbers, so you make an excellent point. I suspect one reason insurance regulators have always used reciprocity for licensing is the nature of the beast; an insurance agent in Texas will frequently be called up to write a policy which includes exposures in other states, and those states will always insist upon that agent being licensed in their state as well. It's practicality.
roadgeek at June 6, 2019 7:02 AM
So a big thing today is getting young people to consider the skilled trades as an alternative to college. Well, guess what? The skilled trades are probably the people most impacted by state licensing regulations. Yes, there are some differences in codes between states, but with a few exceptions (Illinois, I'm lookin' at you), they are not anything that a tradesperson can't come up to speed on with a few hours of reading. And trade schools generally cover the things that are most likely to vary between jurisdictions, because they know that many of their graduates will be traveling or moving elsewhere for work.
Cousin Dave at June 6, 2019 9:12 AM
California is one of the few states that does not offer reciprocal admission to the state bar. That, and California's very high cut-score to pass the bar exam, helps protect the local bar from the hordes who would otherwise want to come to California to practice.
It also means that I'm trapped in California until I retire, since I have no desire at my age to study for and take another bar exam.
Oh, well ...
Jay R at June 6, 2019 2:07 PM
"That, and California's very high cut-score to pass the bar exam, helps protect the local bar from the hordes who would otherwise want to come to California to practice."
That should tell you a little more about California state lunacy. Here's that short list of agencies that make things so much better - and in the process, produce requirements galore to be exploited.
Damned shame.
Radwaste at June 7, 2019 6:51 PM
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