Beauty industry licensing restructure could affect over 60,000 workers statewide
Oct 13, 2024, 5:30 PM | Updated: Oct 15, 2024, 2:33 pm
Jeff Shumway, Utah Office of Professional Licensure Review director, talks about changing cosmetology licensing during a special Utah legislative session in the Senate building in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Major changes to the licensing structure for workers in the beauty industry could be coming to Utah, according to the Office of Professional Licensure Review, which presented a plan Thursday to be recommended to the state legislature in the coming session.
The licensing review office, which was created by the Legislature in 2022, looks at every occupation in the state once every decade, according to director Jeff Shumway.
The review of the cosmetology industry, which was undertaken in the past year, generated a significant amount of interest from current license holders. In August, students from beauty schools across the valley protested. They appeared during the Utah Legislature’s Business and Labor Interim Committee meeting at the Utah Capitol.
Related: Daybreakers race 900-pound pumpkins — and porta-potties — in annual regatta
The impact of these changes may be widespread. There are over 60,000 active licenses in that industry, according to the Division of Professional Licensing, one of the most common in the state. In comparison, there are around 56,000 active nursing licenses in the state and 33,000 contracting licenses.
The division offered a new presentation on Thursday night. It outlined a more finalized version of licensing change recommendations to around 400 online attendees, according to the review office.
Officials limited public input to written comments. These were not accessible to KSL.com at the time of article publication.
“The reason we have licensing is to make sure that significant harm to the public is regulated in some way,” said Shumway. “Licensing is not really about the quality of the haircut that’s being provided. It’s about the safety of the haircut being provided.”
The director said there were three major focal points his department’s review found.
Read the full story at KSL.com.
