New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, D, went on a veto binge on August 26. He axed 22 bills, including one that would have created an exception to the overbearing occupational licensing regime that currently exists in New Jersey.
This bill would have allowed hair braiders to operate without a hair-dressing license that doesn’t even cover their specialty. It passed unanimously in the New Jersey legislature. But due to supposed concerns about customer safety, Murphy put a halt to the reform. Murphy should have supported the bill, because the benefits of helping the poor find honest work vastly outweigh the overblown safety concerns he raised.
Licensing requirements have been around for decades and are reasonably required for certain jobs, such as nursing and flying an airplane. Unfortunately, the New Jersey regime goes too far. According to the Wall Street Journal, the current requirements established by the New Jersey Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling entail nearly 1,200 hours of training that can cost up to $17,000 before one can get a license, which is required to braid hair. To make matters worse, poor, black immigrant women, who traditionally own hair braiding shops, will be the hardest hit by this occupational licensing regime that will now remain in place thanks to Murphy’s veto.
These regulations are supposed to cover many different things for cosmetologists, such as shaving and hair drying, which are not services hair braiders provide in practice. The training for these services is meant to educate cosmetologists on how to properly care for hair, such as shaving, hair drying and safely using chemicals. But hair braiders do not actually cut hair, nor do they use chemicals, so the regulations are entirely unnecessary.
“We do miracles with hair…with our own hands, comb, no chemicals––make them feel so happy and proud,” Anita Yeboah, an immigrant from Ghana, told WNYC.
The bill Murphy vetoed would have removed these training requirements and added an exception for hair braiders. It would have also created an advisory committee to “register and inspect the shops under the new standards.”
Governor Murphy has instead suggested that the licensing requirements be brought down from 1,200 hours of training to 40 or 50 hours, a remarkable deduction but still an unreasonable standard when zero hours would do just fine. In addition, Murphy recommended that in order to open their own shops, hair braiders should either have a license or three years of experience, further preventing women from advancing their careers and lifting themselves out of poverty.
In New Jersey, people who dare braid hair without a license can actually be arrested. This has led several women operating without licenses being intimidated by customers who refused to pay for their services. They have threatened to call the police, according to WNYC, and thus gotten complimentary service. Back in 2014, a woman was actually arrested for braiding hair without a license, but luckily a judge threw out the charges.
This can’t continue. As the free-market think tank R Street Institute’s Shoshana Weissmann and Jarrett Dieterle pointed out in the The Hill, occupational licensing regimes protect incumbent businesses while blocking middle-class and lower-class workers from competing and pursuing careers. The excessive and often arbitrary standards one must overcome to get a license are insurmountable for many. The result is “less competition within certain industries, which translates into higher prices for consumers.”
The sad part is that Governor Murphy recognizes that the current licensing regulations are harming residents of his state. He once wrote that the legislation he later vetoed offered “opportunities for African-American women, immigrants from African and Caribbean countries, and others, by easing potentially burdensome licensing requirements that may prevent many from engaging in the practice of hair braiding.”
And yet Murphy let what he considers perfection become the enemy of good by opposing this bill. Murphy vetoed it on the pretext of consumer safety.
There is no real reason to believe that hair braiding can somehow be dangerous for consumers. But the governor will continue to allow hair braiders to be targeted by cosmetology boards that have not historically been friendly to minorities. Entrepreneurial residents of New Jersey will continue to live in fear that they might be arrested for simply braiding hair without a license, all because of Murphy’s veto and the absurd licensing regime that will remain in place.
Other states have already taken steps to reduce their own regulations on hair braiding and other hair-related licensing requirements. In 2016, Iowa voted to decriminalize hair braiding without a license, and Arizona’s governor, Doug Ducey, has aggressively confronted the licensing boards in his state over burdensome regulations on barbers. New Jersey should have done the same.
This is just another battle in the war between occupational licensing reformers and the entrenched licensing regimes. Unfortunately, Murphy decided to side with the establishment looking to bar poor immigrants, minorities, and women from joining in on the American dream, simply because they don’t have a license.
Elias J. Atienza is a Young Voices contributor. Follow him on Twitter at @elias_atienza.
