The Pink Tax: Why Women Pay More For Stuff

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pink tax


Here is the honest truth about retail. Female consumers are usually targeted by campaigns due to the Antiquated idea that women like to shop and spend more than men. Because of that, women are charged with a pink tax!

So what does the pink tax mean? It simply means that women often pay more for the same products than men. This has been proven time and time again, and they are real world examples you can test out yourself.

For example, take a stroll down the toiletries section. Everything ranging from toothbrushes, razors, deodorant, and any other toiletry will almost always cost more for women than it does for men.

What’s up with this disparity? It makes no sense, but it is an industry fact. Across many Industries, women pay more than men 42% of the time. That’s a lot!

So, today we’ll look closely at the pink tax and analyze why that is the case and what you can do about it.

What is the Pink Tax?

The pink tax is not an actual tax that is paid. Instead, the Pink Tax is a system of discrimination on product pricing and services based solely on gender.

The pink tax encompasses all aspects of life, ranging from retail, dry cleaning, and even Healthcare.

Who is affected by the Pink Tax?

A study by the New York City Department discovered that the pink tax does not only apply to adults. It also applies to young girls in teenage girls alike.

For example, they found out that girl toys cost an average of 2 to 3% more then boy toys of the exact same color and materials. Apart from the fact that it was labeled a girl toy, they were no big differences with the two products.

Another good example of this pink tax is by looking at products from the same manufacturer. A shirt could cost $20 for men, but costs 25 to $30 for women. This would be a shirt from the same manufacturer, similar materials, but a disparity in pricing simply because of gender, Hence the pink tax.

What are the commonly affected products?

Kid’s Products: on average, it has been found that girls clothing and toys cost 7% more on average than boys’ clothing and toys. Even accessories like scooter helmets overalls cost about 4% more than boys’ elements.

Dry Cleaning: when taking clothes for dry cleaning, men on average pay $2.86 to dry clean a shirt. Women on the other hand an average of $4.95 for a shirt.

Self Care Items: things like razors, shaving cream, deodorant, or face cleansers are often huge culprits when it comes to price discrimination. Definitely keep an eye out for these when purchasing self care items.

Car Repairs: Northwestern conducted a study that had women and men call various repair shops asking for a radiator replacement. They found that women were quoted $406 for a job that should have costed $365. Men on the other hand were quoted $385.

Why is there a disparity?

The reasons why women pay more for goods and services vary. There have been researches conducted on the topic, and multiple conclusions were found.

1. Women are less price-sensitive

Some manufacturers and service providers found that women are less sensitive to price changes of their products than men are. It simply means that, if a price of an item goes up, women are less likely to change their buying behaviors as opposed to men.

Over time, this finding has been disproven since women are also more likely to look for deals and coupons to compare prices and find the best possible deal. Men are far less likely to do this.

2. Women’s products have higher tariffs

When importing products from International Markets, women’s products tend to have higher import tariffs. For example, women’s clothing are charge da 15.1% tariff, whereas men’s clothing are charged a 11.9% tariff.

Simply because of this, women’s clothing that has been imported will inherently end up costing a little more than men’s clothing.

3. Production variety adds costs

Since women’s products typically have more variations and customizations, this adds production costs, and thus will end up costing more to the consumer.

Men’s products are typically more simple in design and have less variety and variations. This makes production simpler, quicker, and cheaper than women’s variations. This distinction might also be a reason for the higher costs for women

How to stop paying the pink tax

Now that you are better aware of the problem, what steps can you take to combat this problem and avoid paying the pink tax?

Unfortunately, there is no one easy solution to fix the problem. I know that’s probably not the answer you were looking for, but they are some things that you can do.

For starters, you can start saving money by shopping for gender-neutral products will simply those that are targeted towards men. Sure, this might not work for every product, but it can be a starting point.

Another way to combat this is to be very diligent and compare prices. Don’t always opt for the first option but instead shop around and compare prices. This might not be a foolproof tactic, but some Brands and retailers are more aggressive with the pink tax than others.

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3 Replies to “The Pink Tax: Why Women Pay More For Stuff”

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