1,000+ Arizonans Get Freedom to Work
How a New Law Has Helped 1,000+ Arizonans Earn a Living
Americans are facing record unemployment, but a new law in Arizona is helping people get to work — and it’s having remarkable success.
Thanks to the Goldwater Institute’s Breaking Down Barriers to Work, more than 1,000 Arizonans have been able to continue their careers without having to tangle with costly and time-consuming red tape. A new series of reports from Goldwater Institute National Investigative Journalist Mark Flatten reveals just how successful this new law is and how individuals across the state have benefitted.
When the law was signed in 2019, Arizona became the first state in the country to universally recognize occupational licenses obtained in another state. At the core of this law is a commonsense idea: If you’ve gone through the time and training needed to do a particular job in one state, you shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get a government permission slip just to be doing that same job when you move to a new state.
Read more about the law and how it’s helping Arizonans in this new report.
Success Stories
The number of hardworking Arizonans who have benefited from Breaking Down Barriers to Work is growing all the time. Here are a few of their stories.
Julie Baron knows about the paperwork and delays involved in getting licensed as an acupuncturist in Arizona. But with the state’s Breaking Down Barriers to Work law, Baron believes that this process has gotten better—and will continue to improve.
Erskine Gosling is the last person who should have trouble getting his license as an architect in Arizona. But even with 30 years of experience and the design of billion-dollar buildings to his credit, he still faced bureaucratic barriers to work.
Rachel Haverkos had spent a dozen years as an occupational therapist when wildfires in October 2017 raged around her northern California home. When she came to Arizona with plans to open her own practice, she found that the road to getting licensed there had more than a few bumps. But she believes it can be smoothed out.
A San Diego-based construction and commercial electrical contractor with 25 years in the building trades, Tuan Nguyen was looking to grow his California business into the state of Arizona. And the state’s Breaking Down Barriers to Work law for licensed professionals was a big part of his plan.
Even though Carol Gandolfo had spent 20 years as a psychologist in California, the Arizona Board of Psychologist Examiners rejected her license application last year, due to its interpretation of the new Breaking Down Barriers to Work law. But Gandolfo had only just begun to fight.
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