If you’re a woman, you have most likely experienced the frustration of overpaying for something that men buy at a lower price. This phenomenon, known as the pink tax, is a scam that women everywhere need to be aware of, and is usually found on goods personal care products, clothing, dry cleaning services and even children’s toys.
It is estimated that women end up paying nearly $1,400 in extra costs each year. It doesn’t help that women only earn 80 to 83 percent as much as men do in the workforce, according to a decade-long study conducted by The Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The unfair price differences are most often noticed in products such as razors, deodorant, shampoo and body wash. On average, these necessities cost nearly $4 more for women than they do for men. Taking into account how often these items need to be replaced, that number adds up fast, and the only real reason these products cost more is because they are pink and smell pretty.
Having used men’s razors myself in the past (oh, the horror!), I can assure you that the hair removal was just as efficient with a $5 razor as with a $10 one. I can say the same for men’s deodorant, shampoo and soap, when times got so desperate that I was forced to use a product that wasn’t pink and infused with glitter.
While we’re on the topic of toiletries, let’s talk tampons. If you’re one of the lucky ones who gets a monthly period, you are going to spend about $3,000 over the course of your life on necessary products like pads and tampons.
Not only is this number ridiculously high, these products are taxed as a luxury item in 39 out of 50 states. Oddly enough, I’m pretty sure that not a single woman exists who would describe their time of the month as a luxurious experience.
Even toddlers are not exempt from gender disparities and the pink tax. Girls toys have been priced as much as 13 percent higher than boys toys. Ontarget.com, a pink beginner’s bike is tagged at $80, while the same bike in other colors is only $64. No wonder women allow certain brands to walk all over them; we’ve been overpaying for toys and other products our entire lives.
But giving up our love of the color pink won’t fix the problem. Dry cleaning services take advantage of women all the time.
Dry cleaners often complain that dealing with women’s clothing takes extra time and effort since they have to hand-press the shirts instead of tossing them into a machine like they do with the men’s. But even though unisex machines exist at half the price of the traditional ones, dry cleaners continue to charge women a pretty penny for a service that does not need to cost as much as it does.
One notably inexcusable example of the pink tax is with women’s plus-size clothing at Old Navy. While there is no price increase in men’s jeans, the larger women’s jeans are whopping $12-15 more than the standard ones. The additional cost was said to be because of the “curve-enhancing and curve-flattering elements” that are more difficult to create in plus-size jeans, mentioned in the statement that Gap released on Old Navy’s behalf.
How humiliating and offensive it must be for plus-size women to pay that much more for jeans than they should have to. It is impossible to avoid the pink tax in situations like these, and women need to be aware that they’re literally “paying for it” as a female.
There are a couple of ways that we can combat this issue.
One is to simply give in and buy men’s products, since they really do perform the same job as women’s, even if they’re not as shiny.
Another is to avoid buying name-brand products that tend to over-tax pink and feminine items. There are several companies now that aim to step up against unfair pricing and sell high-quality products at low prices.
Personally, I love the color pink and don’t want to stop in order to save money. Widespread awareness of the pink tax might just be exactly what it takes to get rid of it once and for all.
