Occupational Regulation - Office of the Legislative Auditor

EFFECTIVENESS OF OCCUPATIONAL REGULATION 51
· Implementation of a system of licensing (practice protection).
There are several reasons why it has been difficult to apply the policy in a
consistent manner:
· There has been a proliferation of proposals for occupational
regulation in recent years.
· Legislative committees often have not had time to consider regulatory
proposals in light of the criteria and hear testimony that might provide
needed information.
· Committees often do not have staff or agency reports and
recommendations that could provide needed information.
Legislators and others have observed that there has been a proliferation of requests
for licensure in recent years. Figure 3.1 shows the explosive growth of regulated
occupations in recent decades in Minnesota. Table 3.1 shows the number of
occupations or professions first licensed in various time periods. During the
period 1866-99 there were 13 occupations licensed including physicians, dentists,
attorneys, and barbers. In the period 1900-09 there were 5 new occupations
regulated, in the 1910s there were 12. As the table shows, between 1920 and
1970, the number regulated each decade was 10 or fewer. But there were 40
newly regulated occupations in the 1970s, 39 in the 1980s, and 41 so far in the
1990s.
While Minnesota has a policy governing the regulation of occupations, it does not
have a process by which the policy is applied in a consistent fashion. The
Figure 3.1: Cumulative Number of Occupations
Regulated in Minnesota by Year
Regulated Occupations
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1865 1875 1885 1895 1905 1915 1925 1935 1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995
Year
SOURCE: Program Evaluation Division survey.