The Licensing of Barbers in the USA

AuthorEdward J. Timmons,Robert J. Thornton
Date01 December 2010
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2010.00811.x
Published date01 December 2010
The Licensing of Barbers in the USAbjir_811740..757
Edward J. Timmons and Robert J. Thornton
Abstract
Barbering is one of the earliest professions to be licensed in the USA. This
article discusses the origins of barber licensing, as well as its current status and
scope, and then estimates the effects that such licensing has had on barbers’
earnings. To estimate these effects we use micro-level data from the 2000 US
Census along with several measures of the strictness of state licensing of
barbers. Our results suggest that certain licensing provisions may have
increased barber earnings by between 11 and 22 per cent. The magnitude of our
estimates is somewhat higher than those found in studies examining the effects
of licensing in similar professions.
1. Introduction
While it is well known that union density in the USA has been declining in the
past several decades, not so well known is the fact that the number of workers
in occupations that require a licence to practise has been steadily rising. In
fact, more than one in four Americans today is employed in an occupation
that requires a licence to practise (Kleiner and Krueger 2008). Economic
theory suggests that licensing of a particular occupation should increase the
earnings of practitioners by raising the cost of training or by limiting entry
into the profession (Friedman 1962; Friedman and Kuznets 1945; Stigler
1971). For the case of barbering, however, there is little evidence from the few
studies undertaken so far that licensing has affected either the number of
practising barbers or their earnings (Kleiner 2000; Thornton and Weintraub
1979).
In this article we first discuss the origins of barber licensing in the USA and
follow with a detailed examination of the many licensing provisions and
restrictions contained in the various state laws today. We then estimate the
effects of state licensing on barber earnings using micro-level data from the
2000 US Census. Few prior empirical investigations of the impact of licensing
in any occupation upon the earnings of affected practitioners have used
Edward J. Timmons is at the Department of Business Administration, St. Francis University.
Robert J. Thornton is at the Department of Economics, Lehigh University.
British Journal of Industrial Relations doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2010.00811.x
48:4 December 2010 0007–1080 pp. 740–757
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2010. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
micro data. With such data we are able to control for such individual char-
acteristics as age, race and sex. To measure the effect of licensing on the
earnings of barbers, we use a basic earnings function that includes those state
licensing provisions that have the potential to limit entry into the barbering
profession (such as lengthy training and apprenticeship periods, minimum
years of education, English language requirements, etc.) and thereby raise
earnings.
2. Barber licensing laws
The Barbering Profession in the USA
Barbers in the USA serve an almost exclusively male clientele. The fact that
barbershops are often places for ‘male camaraderie’ is one reason why few
women frequent barber shops. Although barbers sometimes still give shaves
and trim beards, most of their business is simply cutting hair. (Centuries ago
barbers also performed surgery, dentistry, and bloodletting, which led to
Steve Martin’s comic skit ‘Theodoric: Barber of York’ on US television’s
Saturday Night Live.) About half of all barbers in the USA are self-employed.
They either run their own barbershops as sole proprietors, or they rent a
space or a chair from the barbershop owner.
The Origins of Barber Licensing
The history of barber licensing in the USA is closely connected with barber
unionism. The Journeyman Barbers’ International Union of America was
formed in 1887 and joined the American Federation of Labor a year later.
Another national association that included employer barbers — The Asso-
ciated Master Barbers of America — was formed in the 1920s. The condition
of the barbering profession in the USA in the late 1800s was what one
historian (Hall 1936: 61) describes as a ‘sorry state’ — unsanitary shops, poor
training, ‘ruinous price cutting’ and barber training schools that were rapidly
turning out large numbers of what the union claimed were incompetent
barbers. As Lawrence Friedman (1965: 505) puts it, usual union tactics could
not hope to be effective in such circumstances and licensing held out more
promise. As a result, barber licensing laws at the state level were pushed by
(and sometimes the provisions of laws were even drafted by) one or both
barber organizations. In fact, the barber licensing law of one state — Ken-
tucky — still requires that one licensing board member be a union barber.
Some early licensing laws were initially aimed at driving the ‘quickie’
barber schools out of existence. However, the barbers union soon found this
approach ineffective and instead directed its efforts towards improving the
standards of the profession itself by state legislation dictating what must be
taught in the schools and what requirements must be met by those practising
the barbering trade. The state courts did not generally overturn such
The Licensing of Barbers in the USA 741
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2010.

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