North Carolina risks losing ground economically to other states unless it reforms its current approach to occupational licensing. The state also faces the threat of federal legal action. A new John Locke Foundation Spotlight report delivers those warnings.
The report recommends reforms aligned with those in model legislation dubbed the Right to Earn a Living Act.
“While several states have made sweeping reforms to their occupational licensing rules in recent years, North Carolina risks being left shackled to an unwieldy, highly restrictive, and patently anticompetitive approach,” said report author Jon Sanders, JLF Director of Regulatory Studies. “The risk is not just being passed by states with more competitive labor practices. The risk is also from federal antitrust and other enforcement actions.”
Sanders supports what he calls a “Right to Work Act approach” to licenses for jobs in North Carolina. Tennessee and Arizona have both enacted a Right to Work Act.
Read the full report here.
