Local Governments and Occupational Licensing Absurdity

The proliferation of state licensing requirements is already bad enough. There's no need for cities to pile their own mandates on.

Last year, New York City made headlines for cracking down on unlicensed dog sitters. While forcing well-meaning pet sitters to get a kennel license might seem like an only-in-Manhattan problem, the reality is that localities across the country are rife with absurd occupational licensing requirements.

To date, much of the criticism around the issue has focused on state governments' licensing mandates -- such as Louisiana's for florists or Massachusetts' for fortune-tellers -- but municipalities are often just as bad. One of the worst offenders is Detroit.

According to the Mackinac Center's Jarrett Skorup, Detroit requires licenses for at least 60 occupations. While licensing may be appropriate for some professions, such as engineers and doctors, nearly half of the occupations licensed by Detroit are already licensed by the state of Michigan. Detroit's requirements simply layer on more fees and mandates. Further, many of the occupations licensed in Detroit are not licensed in other cities in the Wolverine State, which raises questions about whether those local licenses are really necessary.

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