Article from Reason by Scott Shackford.

Connecticut is the only state in the country that currently does not require minimum licensing to work in places like nail salons. That’s a good thing! Or, it was.

This week, Democratic State Rep. Jillian Gilchrest (West Hartford) managed to push through legislation requiring new, costly inspections of salons and that all nail salon workers, skin care estheticians, and eyebrow technicians pay for state-mandated education and licenses in order to do their jobs.

Occupational licensing of service sector jobs deprives workers—including many minorities, women, and immigrants—from access to entry-level jobs. A review of academic literature performed by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the Treasury Department, and the Department of Labor found that licensing workers in these fields does not protect consumer health or safety. Licenses also drive up the cost of services and restrict mobility.

Nevertheless, Gilchrest claimed that the lack of licensing in Connecticut’s beauty industry is a health hazard, and insisted that women are getting injured by unlicensed workers and unsafe salons. She also said that salons in Connecticut are hotbeds of human trafficking, a claim that couldn’t stand up to scrutiny when she first introduced her bill back in February.

Read the entire article at Reason.

Image Credit: By Jericho [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons