Arizona in 2019 became the first state to recognize all occupational licenses – without restriction or precondition – when Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law HB 2569, which requires state licensing agencies to recognize an equivalent certification issued by another state and issue a reciprocal license to practice in Arizona.
Since then, Arizonans have applied for 5,269 licenses under the law, and 4,723 have been issued.
Additionally, this legislation has become a model for many other states.
CSI estimates that nearly one-third of Arizona jobs require a license, which costs the state roughly $16.2 billion annually, nearly 5% of the state’s GDP and more than $1,700 per person.
“The primary reason for universal occupational licenses is that they have more deleterious effects compared to unionization when it comes to worker mobility due to the fact licenses are costly to obtain in both time and money,” said Glenn Farley, director of policy and research for the Common Sense Institute Arizona. “Over the same period that we saw occupational licensing grow from 5% to 25%, we saw unionization rates exhibit the opposite trend.”
Universal licensing recognition attempts to undo the layers of licensing requirements that keep people out of the workforce.
Generally, an occupational license requires a combination of time, effort, and money to obtain, which reduces the willingness of new workers to enter a licensed occupation. This is especially true when the opportunity cost of entering the...
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