Jacob Goldstein at the New York Times writes about the story of Jestina Clayton, an immigrant from Africa, who started her own small business in Utah braiding hair in the traditional African style. However, she was soon told that she needed to stop braiding hair; she didn’t have a cosmetology license and the state wouldn’t allow her to braid hair without one. So, Clayton asked for an exemption:
Clayton made her case (via PowerPoint) to the exhaustively named governing body of Utah hair-braiding, the Barber, Cosmetology/Barber, Esthetics, Electrology and Nail Technology Licensing Board. The board, made up largely of licensed barbers and cosmetologists, shot her down.
That’s right, the board of licensed cosmetologist said that she couldn’t braid hair without a license. This is a blatant example of cronyism, where one group uses the power of government to get benefits they couldn’t get otherwise. The established cosmetologists were trying to keep out the new competition by forcing her to get an expensive and time consuming license. Clayton wasn’t finished yet, she teamed up with a state representative to get an exemption in the law:
The representative proposed a bill that would exempt hair-braiding from the cosmetology licensing law, but she was no match for the cosmetologists, who have started grass-roots campaigns in several states to fight the loosening of license rules. They turned out in full force in Utah. “We encourage regulation,” says Brad Masterson, a spokesman for the Professional Beauty Association. “Why should everyone else who’s doing hair have to conform to requirements and not her?”
Unfortunately, she didn’t succeed. Fortunately, the Institute for Justice, a law firm which often fights against unfair occupational licensing, has taken up her case.
The problem of occupational licensing being used for cronyism has been mentioned before. Let’s hope this unfair practice is ended.