Survey: Lowering Licensing Standards Raises Business Risks
The Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing released research findings that show “businesses are concerned about the weakening of licensing standards and the resulting rise in business risk.” The Critical Role of Licensing in Business Success features the findings from the survey of 600 decision-makers for small and medium-sized businesses; the statistics highlighted in the summary include: 90% of business decision-makers say that professional licensing protects customers and the public from receiving substandard work; 92% of business decision-makers say it is important to require CPAs, engineers, architects, landscape architects, and surveyors to have a license to practice.
Resources for Regulators: The International Recruitment of Healthcare Workers
Mukul Bakhshi with the Alliance for Ethical International Recruitment Practices shares resources for regulators about the mobility and international recruitment of healthcare workers. In an interview with the Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation he explains, “I would say at the basic level, I think regulators are really challenged because they have hundreds of different issues always at them, and the foreign-educated issue is often not the most prominent on their plate. They’re dealing with all the other issues that regulators deal with every day.” He points to the Alliance’s Health Care Code for Ethical International Recruitment and Employment Practices (Code) that lays out best practices for ethical, fair, and transparent international recruitment. In addition, he lists CLEAR, as well as the National Council of State Board of Nursing, as additional resources for regulators. According to their website, the Alliance for Ethical International Recruitment Practices works to ensure all foreign-educated health professionals are recruited in a fair, ethical, and transparent manner for employment in the United States.
A Snapshot of Occupational Licensing in Wisconsin
In the 2023 State Occupational Licensing Index Wisconsin ranks 9th nationally (with 1st being the most burdensome). According to snapshot from the Knee Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation, “Wisconsin makes it illegal to work in 192 of the 331 occupations examined. This is 13 more occupations than the national average of 179 and 45 more than Kansas—the state with the fewest legal barriers (147) to working nationally.” Twenty-four of those licensed occupations in Wisconsin are licensed in 20 states or fewer; these include: dance/movement therapist, dental radiographer and backflow prevention tester.
