The Interim Study Committee on Employment and Labor, chaired by Sen. Linda Rogers (R-Granger), met last month and heard testimony concerning occupational licensing. The Chamber has long advocated for reducing the barriers to employment for licensed professionals, but the focus of the committee’s meeting was a concept called “universal license recognition,” which 20 states have passed in one form or another in the past four years.

Doug Boyle, Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, testified that over the past two years his agency has worked with various professional stakeholders to assess opportunities to streamline the licensing process.

In short, the primary forms of these options are as follows; states may:
  • limit universal license recognition to residents;
  • permit their boards to grant licensure if the home state license requires “substantially equivalent” education, experience or training;
  • allow universal recognition of a home state license if it has a similar “scope of practice” or “at the same practice level” to the recognizing state’s license; and/or 
  • recognize applicants from states that do not license the occupation if they have at least three years of experience in that occupation.
Notably, option two effectively penalizes states with less burdensome requirements, and option three authorizes a board to ignore license requirements between the two states.

Also testifying were representatives of various professional organizations who stated they already had processes in place that maximized efficiencies for would-be professionals, including physical therapists, landscape architects, realtors, speech language pathologists and audiologists. Additionally, committee member Sen. David Niezgodski (D-South Bend), a licensed plumber, spoke on behalf of his profession as well.

Senator Niezgodski eloquently articulated what I suspect will be the conclusion of the committee, which is that every profession needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, however Indiana must position itself as “the most welcoming state for professional talent from other states who are looking to move or relocate.” 

The only thing we would add is that we should not only make Indiana attractive to professionals from other states, but Indiana should be attractive to professionals from other countries as well. Our ability to alleviate barriers to professional employment rests in the hands of our lawmakers – and the Indiana Chamber will remain committed to ease these restrictions so that the best and the brightest can move to Indiana and get to work right away.

Adam H. Berry is vice president of economic development and technology at the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. He joined the organization in 2019.