Let’s Fully Protect Right to Work

Excerpt:

In a just-released paper for the John Locke Foundation, economists Edward Timmons and Conor Norris observed that North Carolina currently licenses more occupations than do all but 10 other states in the country. While such regulations are often sold as consumer protection, the preponderance of research shows they confer few safety benefits or quality improvements. Their primary effect (and true purpose) is to make labor markets less competitive, raising consumer prices by up to 16% and reducing employment in North Carolina by a net of about 42,500 jobs.

When states recognize licenses issued by other states, wrote Timmons and Norris, the resulting elimination of “redundant training, testing, or education requirements” tends to boost in-migration by highly productive professionals — helping not only those newcomers but also businesses seeking employees and consumers seeking services.

Read the full article at The Carolina Journal.

Read the 2024 State Occupational Licensing Index report here.