A bill in the Ohio Senate aimed at reducing the barrier to obtaining a cosmetology or barber license has received support from The Buckeye Institute.
SB 133, introduced to the Senate earlier this year by Kristina Roegner (R-27-Hudson), would reduce the number of training hours required to obtain a barber, cosmetology or hair designer license. The number of hours required would drop from 1,800 to 1,000 hours for barbers, 1,500 to 1,000 hours for cosmetologists and from 1,000 to 200 hours for hair designers.
Greg Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, voiced support for the bill during an appearance before the Ohio Senate Small Business and Economic Committee on Wednesday.
“Onerous licensing burdens — essentially requiring workers to ask the government for a permission slip to earn a living—make Ohio less competitive, less prosperous, and less attractive to entrepreneurs and their employees. Extensive licensing requirements only make finding a job more difficult,” Lawson said. “Every unnecessary license is a red-taped hurdle that must be cleared. Every hour of unnecessary, unpaid training needed to satisfy bureaucratic requirements is an hour not spent earning tips, impressing a boss, serving a customer, or climbing a corporate ladder. Those are hours of productivity, hours of opportunity that young, low-income workers sorely need, but that the state continues to take away.”
The bill also modifies when cosmetology and barber students can take the written portion of licensing exams, as well as modifies the requirements for those licensed in different countries or states to obtain an Ohio license.
Lawson also pointed out that Ohio cosmetologists complete 250 more hours than those in Pennsylvania and 500 more hours than those in New York, Texas and Vermont.
“Such an onerous training requirement proves laughable when compared to the 150 hours of training required to be a state certified emergency medical technician,” Lawson said “With Ohio currently requiring cosmetologists to have 10 times the training of basic EMTs, the case for licensing reform doesn’t get much clearer.”
SB 133 is currently before committee.
Read the bill here.
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Jordyn Pair is a reporter with The Ohio Star and the Star News Network. Follow her on Twitter at @JordynPair.
