Why must aspiring plumber contractors’ complete multiple years of education, multiple years of lower level work, and pay a hefty annual fee just to obtain a license? What justification does the state provide for these requirements? According to the Construction Industries Board (CIB), which oversees plumber contractor licensing, these requirements are in place to “protect life and property,” to “provide a fair and healthy market environment for the contractor business,” and to show Oklahomans that plumber contractors meet a “minimum standard of competency.” My recent addition to the 1889 Institute’s Occupational Licensing Directory discusses the 1955 Plumber License Law and the licensing regime that developed pursuant to it, finds it totally unnecessary, and recommends a simple solution.
First, the services plumber contractors provide on a daily basis pose no real danger to life or property. Think about it: fixing sinks, faucets, toilets, sewer lines, etc. is relatively straightforward stuff. In addition, for large jobs or those that require more skill or expertise, inspection and permitting requirements of both the state and municipalities mitigate most of the risk. The real danger lies in a cloistered group of plumbers setting unreasonably high prices because they face limited competition, but I digress.
Second, the idea that the state needs to interfere in a market in order for it to be fair and healthy is laughable (nothing says “fair and healthy market” quite like getting fined $200 for offering to unclog someone’s toilet while unlicensed). Market distortion caused by state interference has artificially reduced the supply of contractors in a time when demand is high. In fact, such anti-competitive market interference (via licensing schemes) may actually be in violation of federal antitrust laws. Even if these licensing schemes are not in violation, it is because states’ rights have carried the day, not because the licensing boards are justified and do anything but limit competition.
Finally, obtaining information on the quality or competency of plumber contractors is relatively easy. You can search any number of plumbers on the internet and find plenty of helpful information from Yelp, Consumer Reports, Google Reviews, social media, or sights like Angie’s List. With such a plethora of information available, one would think that the need for the state to certify some arbitrarily determined “minimum standard of competency,” would be totally unnecessary, yet the law still exists. Indeed, Great Britain (which is no stranger to licensing) does not even have state mandated licensing requirements for plumbers, but instead relies on a system of private certification.
Private certification could be a more meaningful shorthand indicator of quality and also allow for greater transparency in occupations than traditional licensing. The 1889 Institute has previously discussed private certification as an alternative to occupational licensing in A Win-Win for Consumers and Professionals Alike: An Alternative to Occupational Licensing. This system of private certification would maintain a high standard of quality and competency, while also removing the market distortion caused by the monopolistic licensing regimes that are currently in place.
What’s not to like about that? Sounds like a win-win to me.
Tyler Williamson is a Research Associate at 1889 Institute and can be reached at [email protected].
Totally right, same goes for other professions like tax preparers, CPA’s, HVAC, and others
Keep up the fight. Government and the unions are creating hardships on tradesmen and unnecessary expense on consumers.
While I agree that the state licensing of many things are unnecessary, the licensing of Plumbers, and other trades people are entirely proper. The difference in these trades versus the licensing of retail business for an example, are public health issues. The issues are serious ones.
For Plumbing work, specifically the connection to municipal water systems, used by the vast majority of the citizens of Oklahoma must be protected. Have you ever heard of thousands of people being poisoned by an improper connection to the water system? Nobody ever really thinks about it. Incidents have occurred in many places.
Chicago Illinois 1933 was the first well documented issue with piping cross connection and under sizing of infrastructure during the worlds fair.
Quoting from an article at http://www.backflowcases.com:
“Two of the main hotels used to house the World’s Fair visitors had cross connections that badly contaminated the water supply. The water was tainted with Amoebic Dysentery and infected nearly every occupant of the 2 hotels. Stop me when this sounds familiar, but Amoebic Dysentery has an incubation period of 12-30 days, so symptoms and sickness did not show up until the visitors had returned to their homes. Even when the first wave of affected residents started pouring into area hospitals, the local government tried desperately to suppress the sickness because there was still 3 months of the Fair remaining, and they didn’t want to scare away potential tourists.
There were nearly 100 deaths and over 700 documented cases spread over 206 cities in the US, and over 1,000 additional cases in the city of Chicago, all traced back to the water supply of the 2 hotels. Given the time frame and lack of information sharing, it’s safe to say those numbers were only a fraction of the actual injuries resulting from those cross connections.”
1933? Come on, that was ages ago……………..
https://www.wtae.com/article/officials-say-not-to-use-water-in-neville-township-due-to-unknown-backflow-in-water-system/29555485
Officials in Neville Township, Allegheny County, have issued a warning to residents to not drink their water due to a backflow in the water system of approximately 2,000 gallons.
Officials said the content of the backflow was determined to originate from a fire suppression system.
The “Do Not Use Notice” has been lifted, but a “Do Not Drink Notice” is now in effect.
Bathing, hand washing, making ice, brushing teeth and washing dishes is not prohibited.
Water will be available at the Neville Island Fire Department on Grand Avenue.
Officials also said not to boil, freeze or filter the water since the content of the backflow is currently unknown.
October 23, 2019
https://www.wbap.com/2019/10/18/city-of-denton-issues-boil-water-notice-for-residents-near-unt/
DENTON (WBAP/KLIF News) – Some Denton residents are still under a boil water notice Friday.
The City of Denton issued the notice Thursday afternoon after staff at the University of North Texas notified the city of something strange about the water.
“We had a cross connection in our water system. In this case, a source of non-potable water was connected to our water potable water system. This connection did not take place by our city staff,” said the city’s Ryan Adams.
The cross connection stemmed from a storm water pond and the city’s public supply.
“In those cases, there is always a potential, even it its remote, for slight contamination of our public water system. In an abundance of caution, we issued a boil water notice and immediately isolated this area of our system and started flushing our system,” said Adams.
The notice affects residents south of I-35, north of Highland Park Road, west of Kendolph Drive and east of Western Boulevard.
The city said it plans to issue and update this afternoon. Officials are asking affected residents to check the city’s website and social media pages for information.
*Boil Water Notice Still in Effect for Specific Denton Area*
The Boil Water Notice issued Thursday remains in effect. The notice affects approx. 600 customers in the area generally south of I35, north of Highland Park Rd., west of Kendolph Dr., & east of Western Blvd. (see map) pic.twitter.com/RigrExXAce
— City of Denton, TX (@cityofdentontx) October 18, 2019
By the way, University systems are not subject to Licensing and inspection rules.
Licensing, bonding and continuing education are the first line of defense in keeping all of our citizens safe. Plumbing systems are the difference between 1st and 3rd world countries. We do not relieve ourselves in trenches or open bodies of water in our civilization, because of this the health of our population is the best in the history of the world. Even with the safeguards in place we still have issues from time to time. This is exactly how important Plumbers are to the public health.
Now let us examine the systems used to train our plumbers, it is called apprenticeship. Building Trades are by far the fairest system of upward mobility in any profession. You must go to school, but you are provided with employment as you go through the classwork. As you progress through your apprenticeship, you get pay raises commensurate with the level of knowledge you acquire.
Your finals are the licensing test.
If you want to work hard, learn your trade and are competent in your workmanship, you will have work. I can not think of a system that is fairer.
The continuing education keeps the Tradesman up to date on code requirements which change from time to time as technology changes and issues that require correction are addressed. The way we assure that we have Tradesmen who keep up with the current best practices are the annual licensing requirements.
Private Certification are a way to achieve this as well. However, health issues cannot however be an opt-in proposal for public utility systems. Unlike the current COVID issues, this is not a mask or 6 foot spacing issue. Chemicals coming into the public water supply, which we all pay for, is a real concern. If proper licensing of individuals that connect to public utilities are not maintained the likelihood of a catastrophic failure is much too large.
While we are talking about private certification for quality, who will pay for that? The certification process will not be free. The only difference is the private certification administration will be receiving the fees. Do we get to seek redress in the courts to the certification company when something falls through the cracks? The first incident of an issue will undoubtedly bankrupt the certifying company, and the first lawyer in line will be the city attorney in the harmed municipality.
Homeowners in this state can repair their own residences in the state of Oklahoma. We do not receive a bill for inspection when we go to the Home Depot to buy a Toilet Repair Kit. We can install our own Water Heaters. The public can go to Crossland’s and rent a Sewer Cleaning machine to unclog the sewer connection from their house to the main.
For those who do not wish to deal with the city or licensing have options. However, for the circumstances where connection to the public water supply is concerned, the municipalities and the state are correct to require it be done by a company that is licensed, Bonded and Approved for these activities.
Christopher,
Thank you for your response.
First, as I mentioned in my paper, Pennsylvania does not have a statewide licensing regime, but instead lets counties and municipalities set their own standards. Allegheny County has particularly onerous licensing standards, more so than the state of Oklahoma, and yet this issue still occurred. Texas employs a licensing regime very similar to Oklahoma, albeit slightly more complicated. Once again, the issue occurred in spite of the state licensing requirement.
You mention that Oklahomans can repair their own homes and do any of the basic tasks that plumbers provide. If it is not illegal for me to do these repairs on my own, why should it be illegal for another unlicensed individual to offer to do them for me? An unlicensed handyman can probably avoid mistakes better than me.
Finally, in cases where connection to the city water supply is concerned, if inspections are not sufficient to maintain the quality of the work, why do we do inspections? Additionally, I am not opposed to bonding requirements for work done that connects to public water supply. I merely maintain that bonding requirements and inspections should be sufficient to ensure the quality of the work.
For information regarding private certification, feel free to check out our paper and model bill.
https://1889institute.org/a-win-win-for-consumers-and-professionals-alike-an-alternative-to-occupational-licensing/