The pink tax is a controversial phenomenon that is not necessarily a tax in itself, but gender-based price discrimination against women. The name stemmed from the fact that the main difference in the most affected “taxed” products is most often colour - feminine products tend to be pink. Although prices for individual products may not seem that different, the slight increase in prices tend to add up over time.
Women tend to pay more than men for products 42% of the time, with the differences being different for different categories - 8% more for adult clothing, 13% more for personal care products, 8% more for toys and accessories.
The pink tax is often labelled as a “luxury” tax, the prime example of this being tampons (a menstrual product), implying that it is not a necessity. However, viagra is not charged under this name despite it being more of a luxury than a necessity.
This pink tax is not only limited to small commercial products but in larger-scale situations as well. For example, women are usually charged a higher interest rate for mortgage loans, despite usually having consistently higher credit ratings.
Why is it that women have to pay more than men, while the gender pay gap or opportunity gap exists?
Written by Sahar Baraki
Artwork by Aurora Brooks
Commentaires