However ardently special interests press for interstate licensing compacts, they have to admit traditional reciprocity makes less complicated law and practice.
This universal version is downright elegant in its simplicity.
MARCH 7, 2024
NEBRASKA PASSES UNIVERSAL JOB LICENSING LAWIn a win for workers and their families, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen signed legislation on March 5 that eases occupational licensing restrictions so Nebraskans can more easily get a job. The bill, LB16, requires licensing agencies to recognize job licenses from other states, which means someone who moves to Nebraska with a good standing occupational license no longer has to jump through unnecessary state-specific hoops just to work in the Cornhusker State.
Modeled by the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, this policy, also called “universal licensing recognition,” streamlines the licensing process so workers can get to work faster. Since Goldwater helped Arizona pass a similar law in 2019, more than 9,000 workers have already been safely licensed through universal recognition.
In addition to recognizing job licenses from other states, the law also makes it easier for people with a conviction record to find work after they have paid their debt to society. Before this law, licensing boards had leeway to prevent those with a record from obtaining a job license in a certain field. With LB16 now in place, exclusion from licensure now has to be directly related to or based on the past conviction.
The Platte Institute: At the Center of Licensing Reform in Nebraska
The Platte Institute, a nonprofit policy organization in Omaha, Nebraska, played a significant role in advancing this law. For years, the Platte Institute has highlighted the problems with Nebraska’s licensing system and the need for reform. Five years ago, Platte helped lawmakers introduce the first version of LB16. Since then, Platte has researched specific job licensing requirements, recruited testifiers, and highlighted stories of real Nebraskans who were hurt by the state’s onerous licensing requirements.One of those Nebraskans was veteran Mike Beyer, who was prevented from receiving a Nebraska license despite working as a construction electrician in the US Navy and completing an 8,000-hour apprenticeship in the military. Stories like these helped Platte demonstrate to lawmakers and the public the negative impact of Nebraska’s licensing policies on ordinary families.
Platte negotiated changes to the bill over the years, encouraged lawmakers to add the second chances provision, and garnered support from a bipartisan set of organizational sponsors, including the Institute for Justice, ACLU Nebraska, and RISE Academy.
Their efforts culminated with Governor Pillen signing LB16 into law on March 5.
New Law Will Help Thousands of Workers in Nebraska
With the passage of LB16, Nebraska became a more attractive place to live and work. People who move to Nebraska can easily transfer their job license to find work in their new home. In addition, those with a criminal record who are trying to turn their lives around can more easily find work. All too often, once people re-enter society after a conviction, they face significant barriers that prevent them from getting their life back on track. One of those barriers is the difficulty in finding work, which is exacerbated by burdensome licensing restrictions like those that existed in Nebraska before LB16. This law will help address those problems.Laura Ebke, a Senior Fellow at the Platte Institute, added: “This outstanding bill opens up new workforce opportunities for people who might want to come to Nebraska, return to Nebraska after military service, or recognize their past mistakes and want to turn their lives around.”
Congrats to the Platte Institute for helping thousands of workers more easily enter the workforce!
https://spn.org/articles/nebraska-eases-workforce-licensing-rules/
About State Policy Network
We believe the reason millions of people have come to America’s shores seeking better lives is not because of anything Washington, DC. has to offer. What makes America a blessing and a dream for so many is not the power of our government but the strength of our communities. Every day, Americans from coast to coast work to build businesses, take care of one another, and pursue fulfilling lives in peace. Unlike so many countries around the world that centralize power in the hands of elites, our system has enabled enormous prosperity and progress by keeping power in the hands of the people.
But more and more, barriers are emerging to the pursuit of a good life in America. Essentials like a safe place to live, reliable and meaningful work, affordable healthcare, quality education, and retirement security are beyond the reach of too many.
It’s not that we’ve forgotten how to govern ourselves, to solve problems together, and to build enterprises that generate good products and steady jobs. The American people are not the problem. The problem is that powerful elites are turning Washington, DC, into an imperial city. They seek to dictate how we educate our children, how we provide healthcare in our communities, how we police our neighborhoods, how we farm our land, how we express our political opinions, and even how we peacefully practice our religions.
We believe the solution to what ails so many American communities is not more power in the hands of Washington elites, but a restoration of the individual rights and local governance that for centuries has made America a beacon of hope for millions around the world.
Mackinac Center's white paper is hot off the presses. Clipped for length, but worth reading in full.
https://www.mackinac.org/s2025-01
<clip>
Michigan licenses about 180 occupations and imposes a variety of business licensing requirements.[4] These laws reduce market competition, which increases prices for consumers. Licensing also costs the state jobs because fewer people are qualified to work legally. The state spends more than $500 million annually to administer its licensing regime.
Licensing laws persist in part because they have built-in support. Educational institutions and training organizations, for instance, benefit financially from licensing requirements because people are required to enroll in their programs. Workers already licensed typically oppose lifting these requirements, viewing it as unfair if others are exempted from the hurdles they had to overcome. Licensed workers also benefit from the higher prices they can charge as a result of the suppressed competition.
Licensing laws are often justified on the grounds that they protect public health and safety by setting minimum standards for people doing these jobs. If these benefits outweighed the cost to consumers and the state’s economy, licensing laws would be worth it. Research on these laws consistently shows, however, that licensing laws generally do not improve public health or safety.[5]
Licensing laws are also arbitrarily established.[6] Similar occupations that present similar risks to public health often have different licensing requirements, with some occupations remaining unlicensed. The stringency of different licenses appears inconsistent, too. Some relatively safe jobs might require thousands of hours of training and years of education while other occupations that are seemingly riskier to public health can require significantly less training and education. This hodgepodge of licensing rules is inconsistently enforced.[7] Many licensing laws amount to little more than artificial and expensive barriers for people who want to work in Michigan.[8]
Some states regularly review and repeal occupational licensing laws that do not directly impact public health and safety. The Growing Michigan Together Council, established by Gov. Whitmer in 2023 via executive order, recommended Michigan follow these states’ lead. The council’s report asked that lawmakers “conduct a full review of professional licensing requirements to identify which can be maintained, improved, updated or eliminated.”[9]
<clip>
A Michigan case study
Even though Michigan has reciprocal licensing compacts with many other states, the regulations on the books can still be cumbersome and confusing, creating obstacles for people trying to move to Michigan to work.
Consider the case of Anne Davis. Anne is a psychotherapist with degrees from Central Michigan University and Colorado Christian University. She grew up in Michigan but moved to Colorado and worked for more than 20 years as a counselor for the homeless, mentally ill and others in a private practice.
She and her husband, also a counselor, moved back home to Michigan to be near family and to better care for their adult son with disabilities. Her husband’s license — a professional counselor license — took just two months to transfer from Colorado. Anne’s license, however, was different. The psychotherapist license she used to practice counseling in Colorado did not easily transfer to Michigan even though she had completed all the training and experience as a counselor.[35]
Anne spent 13 months trying to convince the state department that her master’s degree in counseling was adequate to meet the requirements of getting a Michigan license. Eventually, the state agreed and approved her license without requiring Anne to do anything extra. But she lost more than a year of potential income while she waited for the state to issue her license.
If Michigan had an automatic universal licensing reciprocity law, Anne would have been able to start work almost immediately. Instead, Michigan's rules resulted in the state having one fewer counselor during those 13 months, for no good reason. It’s hard to see how Michigan’s process accomplished anything other than unnecessarily delaying someone from earning an income and providing Michiganders with a needed service.
Conclusion
Michigan should join the bipartisan collection of states that have universal licensing reciprocity laws. Considering the state’s population trends, policymakers should be keen to make Michigan one of the easiest places in the country to move to and start working. The state should automatically grant a license to someone who was licensed in another state for a similar occupation. Michigan should recognize the work experience of those from other states and allow that to count toward automatically qualifying for a license here.
Michigan lawmakers and regulators should also be regularly reviewing the licenses on the books and reducing or removing the licensing requirements that do not clearly demonstrate that they improve public health and safety. This would make it easier for people in Michigan to work in hundreds of occupations and make it easier for people employed in other states to move here.[36]
Research shows that universal licensing reciprocity laws increase interstate migration — more people move to states with those laws than otherwise would. The law would increase economic growth and help alleviate worker shortages that plague certain occupations. The reduction in red tape would also lower the unemployment rate and reduce prices for consumers. These laws would expand access to services that would benefit all Michiganders, but especially those in sparsely populated or impoverished areas.
<clip>
Sign Up for MHF Insights to keep up on the latest in Michigan Health Policy
