Beech Tree News Network

The randomness of occupational licensing regulations in Kentucky, especially for jobs often filled by lower-income citizens, has specific – and unfortunate – consequences.

For example, the fact that Kentucky law forces barbers to pay hundreds of dollars in fees and train hundreds of days before being allowed even to begin earning a decent living no doubt discourages entrepreneurial barbering.  

A new Institute for Justice study reports that Kentucky’s onerous licensing regulations randomly – and disproportionately – affect mid-to-lower income jobs.

Most other states restrict a greater number of occupational fields than Kentucky. However, the 27 occupations regulated by our commonwealth face some of the most burdensome and costly rules in the nation. According to the IJ report:

Only four states’ occupational regulations are more arduous than Kentucky.

Kentuckians who want to become auctioneers must have two years of experience, compared to a national average of only about three months.

Only 11 states have more restrictive licensing regulations than Kentucky for manicurists, who must train for 140 days, take two exams and pay an $87 fee before receiving a license.

Only nine states more oppressively regulate skin care specialists and makeup artists than Kentucky. Those wishing to enter either field must train for a whopping 233 days and pay $200 in fees before receiving their licenses to go to work.

However, Kentucky’s regulatory shears cut closest to our barbers, snipping away the opportunities of those who want to enter that field. Barbers must train for more than 600 days and pay a licensing fee of more than $300 just to begin practicing their craft on a perfectly willing customer.  

In the words of Cedric the Entertainer from the 2002 film “Barbershop,” it’s about time for some straight talk in the Bluegrass State regarding the under-appreciated barbering profession.  

“If we can't talk straight in a barbershop, then where can we talk straight?” Cedric asked. 

So, here’s some straight talk -- directly from the chairs of would-be Kentucky barbers: 

There’s absolutely no reason why 600 days of training are necessary when a bad barber would have a snowball’s chance under a hot summer Kentucky sun of staying in business. Customers, not faceless bureaucrats or finicky politicians, should determine whether coiffeurs make the cut. Considering it’s their hair, who would do a better job?

It’s intolerable that the licensing requirements for barbers far outweigh those of much-riskier occupations like emergency medical technicians and school-bus drivers. Why does the commonwealth require more than 600 days of training for barbering, yet demands only 32 days to acquire an EMT license and only four days to take on a job that involves transporting young people to and from school in a 15-ton bus that’s about as easy to steer as a wild stallion?

What do commonwealth politicians and bureaucrats have against barbers? Most are not wealthy, but they work hard, build a loyal client base and often are community minded citizens. 

I wonder: Does such randomness in regulating – requiring only 32 days to become an EMT, an occupation where high risks in terms of health and safety are obvious, versus 20 times as much training for a barber – find its roots in the same place where so much else is decided in Kentucky: political jockeying and special-interest lobbying?  

Whatever the reason for the randomness, removing the colossal barriers erected by Kentucky’s prohibitive occupational licensing requirements offers low-hanging fruit for legislators and more economic opportunity for many – primarily younger – middle and lower-income Kentuckians. 

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Jim Waters is president of the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free-market think tank. Reach him at [email protected]. Read previously published columns at www.freedomkentucky.org/bluegrassbeacon.