This is how government grows. The secret to why there is so much regulation, of everybody from real-estate agents to hairdressers and hypnotists, is that many of these groups want state regulation. It's a way to keep out the riff-raff, be able to charge dues and fees, feel professional, keep the price up. Latest example: Massage therapists are begging for state control:
"Being president of the American Massage Therapy Association, I, like many other massage therapists would be very happy to never hear prostitution and massage linked together, you know? It's very offensive, you don't hear other professions linked with that, but you do hear massage and body work being used in that way," says Jennifer Irving, the president of the Indiana branch of the American Massage Therapy Association.
As of January 2005, 38 states, plus the District of Columbia require licenses for massage therapists.
"It defines a standard of ethics. It gives the citizens some protection. It lets them know the person they are going into has some sort of qualification to be touching them and doing body work with them," says Irving.
To get licensed, House Bill 1098 proposes therapists undergo an entry level massage therapy education of at least five hundred in-class hours and pay $150.
