By Tom Lampman

Summary

A job is a stepping-stone to a better life for low-income Ohioans. Unfortunately, many moderate-income jobs in Ohio require hundreds of dollars in government licensure fees plus the completion of thousands of hours of training. It is reasonable to require extensive training for jobs that pose significant health and safety concerns, such as physicians and airplane pilots, but the same is not true of auctioneers, cosmetologists, and barbers. These requirements are significant barriers to employment, and for underprivileged Ohioans they can be insurmountable. Licensure requirements that are not rationally tied to consumer’s needs needlessly hold back those Ohioans trying to climb the economic ladder for themselves and their families. These damaging regulations should be scaled back and in many cases eliminated. 

Click here to download the full report: Forbidden to Succeed: How Licensure Laws Hold Ohioans Back