Contractor licensing requirements for every state in the US

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Each state was evaluated against a set of common licensing requirements, which explored several key questions:

1. How does the state measure professional competency? (e.g. board exam, work experience requirements)
2. Does the state perform a criminal background check?
3. Do they measure financial solvency?
4. How do they minimize consumer liability?
5. Do they have a system that provides homeowners with financial recourse if things go bad? (e.g. surety bond, recovery fund).

Here is how we graded each state based on these criteria.  Note that we focused on state agencies that licensed general contractors. State boards that only handle specialty licensing (e.g. The Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board) and city boards (e.g. NYC Department of Consumer Affairs) were not eligible for consideration.