More Uniform Local Massage Facilities Regulation

The law has allowed, but has not required, a county or a municipality to adopt a resolution or ordinance that either establishes business licensure requirements for massage facilities or regulates and prohibits unlawful activities to prevent the operation of illicit massage businesses that engage in human trafficking-related offenses.

The act:

• Makes a legislative finding and declaration that it is a matter of mixed statewide and local concern to establish a statewide requirement that a massage facility operator, owner, or employee, including an independent contractor who is involved in the routine operations of a massage facility (employee), submit to a background check, which generally means a fingerprint-based criminal history record check (background check);
• Requires every county, city and county, and municipality (local government) that has a massage facility within its jurisdictional boundaries to adopt a local process that ensures that the required background checks are conducted;
• Requires such a local process to also require, as a condition for a person remaining as or becoming a massage facility operator, owner, or employee, that:
• Every current operator, owner, and employee submit to a background check on or before the earlier of October 1, 2025, or any other date specified in the local process; and
• Every prospective operator or owner to submit to a background check at least 30 days before being granted a license to operate the massage facility or assuming an ownership interest in a massage facility;
• Prohibits a person from being a massage facility owner if the person either has not submitted to a required background check or has either:
• Been convicted of or entered an accepted plea of nolo contendere for a felony or misdemeanor of solicitation of a prostitute, a human trafficking offense, or money laundering; or
• Is registered as a sex offender or is required by law to register as a sex offender;
• Prohibits a massage facility operator or owner from employing at a massage facility a person who has not submitted to a required background check;
• Authorizes an operator or owner to employ at a massage facility a person who has been convicted of or entered an accepted plea of nolo contendere for a felony or misdemeanor of solicitation of a prostitute, a human trafficking offense, or money laundering, or who is registered as a sex offender or is required by law to register as a sex offender, if the operator or owner believes that the person does not pose a threat to customers or employees of the massage facility;
• Authorizes the local licensing authority for a local government that has established massage facility business licensure requirements to suspend or revoke the license of any massage facility that has an owner or an employee who is prohibited from being a massage facility owner or employee;
• Requires a county and a municipality within the county to consult with each other when developing, as is still authorized but not required, a resolution or ordinance to establish business licensure requirements for massage facilities or regulate and prohibit unlawful activities to prevent the operation of illicit massage businesses that engage in human trafficking-related offenses, and, by mutual agreement between a county and a municipality within the county, allows a municipality to elect to have a county's resolution or ordinance apply to massage facilities operating within the jurisdictional boundaries of the municipality in lieu of adopting its own ordinance or resolution; and
• Because a massage therapist is required by current law to submit to a background check to obtain a license to practice massage therapy, exempts a licensed massage therapist from the act's background check requirement.

EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)