When shegave birth to her first son, Ty Daye opted for a faster career path.
Raised in foster care, she graduated from East High School in the top 20% of her class. Her mentors encouraged her to go to college. She spent a semester at Iowa State University, then another at Grand View University, studying child and family services with the hope of becoming a social worker.
Then she became a single mother at 19, and she enrolled in cosmetology school. Daye had enjoyed the craft since she was a teenager, gluing in hair extensions for her friends for $15or a ride to the skating rink.
But she did not enjoy her time at the Iowa School of Beauty in Urbandale. Iowa law requires cosmetologists to go through2,100 hours of training to receive a license— among the strictest requirements in the country.The Legislature is considering whether to reduce the required hours, along with a suite of broader changes to the boards that govern the dozens of licensed professions in the state.
One out of three jobs in Iowa is licensed, the highest proportion in the country, according to a 2015 Brookings Institute report. When it comes to haircuts, libertarians and salon franchise owners alike have pushed for years to decrease the number of required hours.
Elsewhere in the Midwest:Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and South Dakota require cosmetologists to go through 1,500 hours of training. Nebraska requires 1,800 hours.
School owners have argued that the higher bar in Iowa produces cosmetologists who can earn more money. They opposed a similar change proposed in the Legislature last year.
Daye, 37,laughed when she heard theschool owners' argument. Under the state's administrative code,most of a cosmetology student's time is spent cutting hair for the school's customers.
Daye said she rarely saw more than two customers a day and spent most of her time in a break room, flipping through hair magazines or hunched over a table, napping. Proceeds for the haircuts went to the school, except for tips.
"People who choose a cheap haircut, they're not going to be big tippers," Daye said.
Some cosmetologists who spoke to the Des Moines Register said they got through the school in about 1½ years. But Daye said she was suspended twice for not showing up. She skipped days at the beauty school to work a retail job because she needed the money.
She finally graduated after more than two years, in 2005, with $15,000 in debt.
Compared to some classmates, she actually feltlucky. Daye at least had work lined up, renting a booth at Great Length Hair Salon, a since-closed shop on Des Moines' east side.
But building a customer base takes time.On a good day, she made $100. A year of good days meant $25,000.
Between the loan's interest rate and the deferments she needed to take a couple of times, Daye said her debt has actually grown since she graduated, to $19,000. She blames the length of her schooling, which she believes was pointless.
"There's not really much they can teach you," said Daye, who now owns TranZions Salon & Beauty Bar on East Madison Avenue."You're there just racking up a bill. You've learned all you're going to learn within 1,000 hours— 1,100 hours, max."
Cutting the hours required to cut hair
A bill in the Legislature this year would decrease the number of training hours required to get a license tocut hair, dropping it to 1,500. The proposal is one of several this session that would change occupational licensing laws in Iowa, a top issue in recent years among business lobbying groups.
Nationally, Republicans and Democrats have both attacked the system of licensing laws— in particular, those imposing expensive requirementsinfieldswhere workers don't make much more than minimum wage.
President Barack Obama's administration issued a paper in 2015, calling for states to decrease the number of occupations that require licenses.Its authors argued that some rules require workers to spend too much time and money to break into an industry and that differing rules from state to statediscourage workers from moving.
President Donald Trump's administration in October also called for fewer occupational licensing boards, making the same arguments.
► Opinion:Occupational licensing crushes dreams, adds to income inequality in Iowa
In Iowa, lawmakers have tried to curb excessive licensing in recent years.Then-Gov. Terry Branstad sponsoreda bill in 2017 to eliminate several of the boards that oversee licensed professions.
Branstad's bill failed.Now, Gov. Kim Reynolds is trying. Thebill she is backing in the current legislative sessiondoesn'tgo as far as Branstad's and would not eliminate any current boards.However, it would require those boards to recognize licenses from other states, a change advocateshope will encourage licensed workers to move to Iowa.
Currently, boards independently decide whether they will recognize licenses from other states. The cosmetology board, for example, recognizes workers as long as they have been licensed for at least a year.
Reynolds' proposal also would waiveapplication fees for workers with household incomes less than 200% of the federal poverty line. For a family of four, this year,the cutoff would be $52,000.
In her Condition of the State address, Reynolds said her bill also would help workers with criminal convictions earn licenses. Boards, oftenrun by industry insiders,currently make their own rules about whether to acceptthose workers.
Reynolds' bill would requireboards to establish specific, disqualifying crimes. It also would instructboards to consider some factors for each case: whether the crime was violent, how long ago it occurred and how old the applicant was at the time.
More:
- Gov. Kim Reynolds' full 2020 Condition of the State address
- What will happen in the 2020 legislative session? Here are 5 issues expected to draw Iowa lawmakers' attention
Some legislators have proposed their own bills that, like Reynolds', would require all occupational boards to recognize licenses from other states. One of those bills goesfurther, aiming to eliminate some boards. It would create a "sunset committee" toreview the boards every five years and recommend to the Legislature whether to fold any.
Reynolds' bill is getting most of the attention. The Iowa Business Council and the Iowa Association of Business and Industry have registered in favor of the legislation. So have some conservative and liberal advocates.
The libertarian group Americans for Prosperityfavorsthe bill, saying it wouldease restrictions on workers. Also in support are lobbyists for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, who say such rules would give workerswith criminal records a better chance to find jobs.
"If the sky's not falling in Missouri, Nebraska, other states, maybe we should recognize that we'll probablybe OK in Iowa as well," said Drew Klein, the Iowa state director for Americans for Prosperity.
► Iowa Legislature:Here's where key bills stand after first 2020 'funnel' deadline
So far, two groups have registered to opposeReynolds' bill: the Iowa State Education Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Iowa State Conference.
Education Association Government Relations Specialist Melissa Peterson said the organization opposes the part of Reynolds' bill that allows coaches and administrators to move from out of state and receive a license.
To receive a license, coaches in Iowa need to take a 55-hour course, go through concussion training and become CPR certified, according to the Board of Educational Examiners. Administrators need to hold a master's degree, at least be eligible for an Iowa teaching license andhave taught in a classroom for at least three years.
"The Board of Educational Examiners needs to maintain control over the standards for all educators," Peterson wrote in an email.
Before Pelosi, there was Bobby Kaufmann
TheU.S. Supreme Court case gave anti-licensing advocates an opening with its decision in a 2015 case concerninga rule created by the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners.
Comprised of dentists, the board decided that only workers in their profession could sell teeth-whitening products. The board ordered the state to shut down mall kiosks that sold competing goods.
The Federal Trade Commission sued, alleging the board had violated antitrust laws. The board argued it was an arm of the state government, immune to lawsuits.
The Supreme Court sided with the FTC in a 6-3 vote. True, it said, the state government is above antitrust law. But no North Carolina state official oversaw the dental boards. The dentists made their own rules for the industry, without oversight.
Writing for the majority, then-Justice Anthony Kennedy said occupational licensing boards are not protected from antitrust lawsuits unless a state official can override their decisions. The court's ruling was bipartisan:In addition to Kennedy, conservative Chief Justice John Roberts joined the four liberal justices.
"When a state empowers a group of active market participants to decide who can participate in its market and on what terms," Kennedy wrote, "the need for supervision is manifest."
Branstad's spokesman said that after the ruling, the governor metwith Attorney General Tom Miller to determine how the state needed to change its boards. In his 2017 Condition of the State address, Branstad asked lawmakers to conduct a "comprehensive review of all of our state's boards and commissions to address unnecessary barriers."
He followed up with a bill that would have ended licensing requirements for 13 different industries, ranging from dietitians to barbers to respiratory therapists.
A flood of industry lobbyists attacked the proposal, saying it was too broad and could harm public health. State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann said he received 3,600 emails opposingthe proposal, more negative feedback than he got when the Legislature stripped public sector unions of most collective bargaining rights in 2017 or restricted most abortions in 2018.
In an act of political theater similar to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's reaction to Trump's State of the Union addressthis year,Kaufmann ripped the front page of Branstad's bill in half. The legislation failed in subcommittee.
Kaufmann, thechair of the House State Government Committee,said Branstad's bill was rushed. Hedidn't see it until the week before the Legislature's funnel deadline, when lawmakers need to push legislation through at least one committee to keep it alive.
Kaufmann also said he worried about the public health effects of ending oversight for some professions.
He supports Reynolds' bill this year. Her legislation doesn't call for the end of any boards, and several business groups have said recognizing licenses from other states will bring more workers to Iowa.
"This is another way of addressing the workforce shortage, to make sure people who already have skills aren't discouraged to come to Iowa because of our licensing laws," Kaufmann said.
Still, it's not clear whether workers would actually move here. Lozier Heating and Cooling owner Gary Pennington doesn't think the bill will be effective.
Like others in his business in the Des Moines metro, Pennington supports any effort to lure workers to the state. Iowa's training requirements for an HVAC contractor areamong the strictest in the nation, according to the Institute for Justice, a libertarian think tank that studied occupational licensing laws in 2017.
Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and South Dakota don't require statewide licenses for HVAC contractors.
But Pennington doesn't think workers in nearby states are contemplating a move to Iowa.
"These outside contractors from Minneapolis or some of these other cities with large, mechanical contractors, they will come in and do a 20-story hotel downtown as opposed to having a local contractor do it," Pennington said. "Now, they can legitimately work and pull their permits and get their job done. And when that building's done, they're going to leave. They're not moving into the state. They're using the state. They're taking the state work away. That money ultimately gets funneled back to where they came from."
'They can't cut hair'
Jerry Akers, ownerof 18 Great Clips franchises in Iowa, believes easing requirements in his industry will give him the extra workers he says he needs.
The franchise has a basic rule: People should not have to wait more than 30 minutes for a haircut.But on a recent Saturday afternoonat the Iowa City location, the wait time was an hour and 10 minutes. On Sunday afternoon, it was an hour and four minutes.
"They go somewhere else," Akers said of his customers. "It hurts our business."
A member of the Iowa Board of Cosmetology Arts andSciences, Akers advocated for the state to drop the number of hours required for a cosmetology license. Even with 1½ years of training in school, Great Clips brings in its own trainers to work with new hires.
"The schools argue it's an art form," he said. "It takes them that long to get them through the whole system.We can see, by what's happening, that's not the case."
► Previous coverage:Governor's occupational licensing bill advances out of House committee
Cosmetology is a lightning rod in the debate over Iowa's licensing laws. Most workers graduate tens of thousands of dollars in debt and enter a profession that generally doesn't pay well.
Counting incentives that come with selling hair products, the median wage for a cosmetologist in Iowa was $15.09 an hour in 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That comes out to about $32,000 a year.
An analysis of 2015 U.S. Department of Education gainful employment data shows that students graduated from Iowa cosmetology schools with an average of $16,000 of debt.
This yearin Iowa, the Senate State Government Committee has introduced a billthat would createa separate hairstylist license. It would not allow workers to do other tasks permitted under a cosmetology license, such aswaxing legs and painting nails.
"I guess you'd call it, 'neck up only,'" said Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, the bill's floor manager.
Schultz was the floor manager for a similar bill last year, which didn't get a vote in the Senate. At the time, lawmakers also tried to reduce the number of hours required for the full-suite cosmetology billto 1,800.
Lobbyists for the Cosmetologists and Barbers of Iowa registered against the bill. Schultz said lawmakers in the House made it clear they wouldn't pass his proposal.
"We didn't have an agreement, and I could tell we weren't going to have an agreement," he said. "We just stopped for a lack of time."
Licensing critics not only target cosmetology schools for their costs. They also question whether these for-profit businesses provide a quality education.
The most high-profile case involvedLa'James International College, the subject of a rare, public investigation.
In a complaint released in June 2013, acosmetology board investigator said La'James didn't employ enough instructors, failed to provide students sufficient supervisionand didn't keep its equipment clean. The school paid a $10,000 fine, promised to improve staff trainingand said it would conduct self-inspections.
Miller, the state attorney general, sued La'James in 2014,alleging the school defrauded its students. Miller said La'James required them to sell hair products for the school's benefit and work as janitors. He also said the school improperly charged students when they fell behind in their training.
The school's owners settled in 2016, admitting no fault but agreeing to pay a $550,000 fine. La'James also agreed to forgive $2.1 million in student debts.
► From 2019:Beauty schools may be biggest scam in higher education, Register editorial board writes
Doug Van Polen, owner of Aveda Institute Des Moines, said schools like his have received a bad rap. The number of hours required for a license is because of the broad range of services that cosmetologists can perform, he said.
Van Polen said his school sells haircuts, performed by students, tooffsetoperational costs.
Hesaid he supports amendments to the rules if they are "what's best for Iowa." But, he argued, strict standards lead to better hair stylists who can make $40 an hour.
"The ones that graduate, they're graduating with honors," he said. "They feel like they accomplished something. (Lowering the required number of hours) takes away a lot of value."
Some Iowa hairstylists don't buy that argument. Hannah Arant, the manager at Trixies Salonin Des Moines, said she graduated from La'James with $28,000 ofdebt. Some days, she said, instructors didn't show up, and students watched movies.
Arantsupports the 2,100-hour requirement, in theory. But she said she didn't get the training she paid for.
Kelly Gallagher, a hairstylist at J. Michaels Salon in Des Moines who graduated from PCI Academy in Ames, said she also didn't feel her education prepared her for work. Most of her technique came with experience as she earned a living.
"Working more hands-on and working with another stylist, I feel like, will transition you better in the real world," she said.
Nic Ohlhauser, a general manager of Great Clips salons in Iowa and Nebraska, said he graduated from a cosmetology school in Missouri with 1,500 hours of training. When he moved to Iowa, the state required him to get another 600 hours. His total debt rose to about $20,000 from about $12,000.
Ohlhauser said he gave about two haircutsa day as a student in Iowa. The rest of the time, he curled hair on mannequins, played with his phone in the breakroom or smoked cigarettes outside with friends.
"It was basically a complete waste of my time and money, to be honest," he said.
When he graduated, he earned about $9 an hour as a stylistat Cost Cutter, a hair salon franchise.Pay increased slightly when he switched to Great Clips, where he saw more traffic and earned bonuses hawking gels and shampoos.
Moving up to a general manager role helped, as well, though he estimates he is still about $15,000 in debt a decade after he started working.
As a manager, he has become more frustrated with the licensing laws.
"They can't cut hair," he said of the graduates. "They just can't. A lot of them, we have to start from scratch with them and teach them the basics. Why did you waste $20,000?"
Not without a license
Among the professions requiring a state license in Iowa:
- Athletic trainer
- Barber
- Mental health counselor
- Marital and family therapist
- Chiropractor
- Cosmetologist
- Electrologist
- Esthetician
- Nail technician
- Dietitian
- Hearing aid specialist
- Massage therapist
- Funeral director
- Nursing home administrator
- Optometrist
- Physical therapist
- Occupational therapist
- Occupational therapy assistant
- Podiatrist
- Prosthetist
- Orthotist
- Pedorthist
- Psychologist
- Respiratory care practitioner
- Polysomnographic technologist
- Sign language interpreter
- Transliterator
- Social Worker
- Speech pathologist
- Audiologist
- Emergency medical technician
- Paramedic
- Backflow prevention assembly tester
- Plumber
- HVAC contractor
- Lead inspector
- Medical physician
- Osteopathic physician
- Acupuncturist
- Physician assistant
- Nurse
- Pharmacist
- Dentist
- Pharmacy wholesaler
- Dentist
- Dentalhygienist
- Dental assistant
- Accountant
- Architects
- Engineer/landsurveyor
- Interior designer
- Landscape architect
- Real estate agent
- Teacher
- Attorney
Tyler Jett covers jobs and the economy for the Register. Contact him at 515-284-8215 and tjett@registermedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.
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