Does Virginia impose an unnecessary burden on low-income workers? Michael Pope has this report about a new study that calls attention to the state’s requirements for licensing.
Virginia is the seventh most burdensome state in terms of the requirements it puts on low-income workers to get licenses for employment. That’s according to a new report from the Institute for Justice. Painting contractors, for example, must have two years of experience and complete a business class before they can get a Virginia license. Lisa Knepper helped write the report.
“Our argument is that people who are arguing those contractors should be free to decide how much experience is the right amount of experience for them instead of creating an artificial and really arbitrary barrier to entry.”
But lawmakers are adding new licensing requirements all the time. Earlier this year, the General Assembly passed a law that creates a new licensing requirement for laser hair removal. That bill was introduced by Democrat Mark Keam of Fairfax County.
“Anything that involves physically touching and/or impacting a person’s health is an area where you should have some government regulation or some kind of licensing requirement. But if it involves paperwork and it’s less about physical contact with another human being maybe we don’t need as much.”
Keam says he agrees that some of the licensing requirements might be overly burdensome, and he says he would be willing to work with the Institute for Justice or any other organization to get rid of rules that might create unnecessarily hurdles for low-income workers to get a job.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
