The Pink Tax


Image result for female symbol      The Pink Tax. Never heard of it? To put it simply, it is the price difference for female-specific products in comparison to products that are either gender neutral or marketed to men. According to the New York City Department of Affairs, products for women or girls cost roughly 7 percent more than those for men or boys. This study was conducted across about 800 products from over 90 different brands. For some specific categories of products such as personal care products, women are paying up to 13 percent more than men would. 

      The Pink Tax symbolizes the gender inequality that continues to exist in today's society.
      Another example can be seen in a product as simple as razor blades. Vanek Smith and Karen Duffin walked into a Walgreens and took a look at razor blades. Literally, they were the exact same blades except that one was packaged in pink and the other in blue. The unit price of the blue blades was 59.9 cents per razor while the pink razor price per unit was $1.25. A little more than double. It isn't surprising and it's an interesting thing to take note of considering women typically make less money than men do. And even stranger, economists think this is a good thing. Why? Well, it's a form of price discrimination that as we learned in class, allows a firm to charge different prices to different people so that way more people who want to buy a good are able to buy it. To say the least, it benefits men.
      So to conclude, it's important to be aware of the price discrimination that occurs all around us in our daily lives. For women, in particular, many of them aren't even aware of the significant price differences between their own products and those for men. As a result, women are allowing this price discrimination to continue.


https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2017/03/27/pink-tax-forces-women-pay-more-than-men/99462846/
https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=667539604

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 17, 2019 at 11:55 AM

    Really interesting article! This is something that I've actually noticed before. To combat the pink tax I typically find myself buying razors, for example, that are typically catered to men simply because they are cheaper.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 18, 2019 at 11:27 AM

    Woah I had no idea, thanks for sharing!! I was curious about the numbers and found that women pay about $1,300 more a year than men for the same products and services. This then means that women pay an extra $40,000 by age 30 and $65,000 by age 50. There's no doubt this phenomenon is real and deserves more attention.
    https://www.adweek.com/agencies/its-no-joke-european-wax-center-chooses-april-fools-day-to-rail-against-the-pink-tax/

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 19, 2019 at 12:17 AM

    Interesting post. I had no idea this 'tax' was in effect as I never had paid attention to it. Some states and cities have been taking the tax to consideration and have started banning businesses who take the tax in effect.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousApril 19, 2019 at 8:00 AM

    It is actually super interesting. I read that deodorant is marketed towards women is on average 56% higher in price in comparison to men's deodorant. It isn't just deodorants, razors, and other hygienic products being marketed at a slightly higher price when targeting women, jeans also fall into the trap of the pink tax. On average, a woman pays 10 percent higher for jeans than men do.

    https://www.popsugar.com/career/What-Pink-Tax-Exactly-46035184

    ReplyDelete

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