Paying the pink tax: Why women are needlessly being charged more for everyday things

Only half of the population are affected, and most of them might not even realise…but the pink tax is very real. Have you been paying it all this time?

Wait, what is the pink tax? It’s a term for the extra amount women are charged for certain products or services for just being that: women. Men don’t have a blue tax as they all round have a better deal when it comes to how much money they make and have.

Activism and rallying website GetUp recently created a campaign for the Gender Price Gap, which aims to identify examples of the gender price gap and to name and shame some of the companies responsible.

A CHOICE spokesman told News Corp that gender pricing was a “pretty nasty business trick” and women shouldn’t “feel bad about buying a product that is targeted at another gender”.

“Businesses try to emotionally manipulate consumers, so regardless of how the manufacturer frames the product using colour or images, you’ve got to look past that”, he said.

Last year, Kerry wrote in with a WPMO article about what she believed to be hairdresser discrimination. She said, “Why do I (and other women) have to pay 33 per cent more for my hair cut, which is a short back and sides like a bloke’s? It’s not about the price, it’s the unfairness and inequality”.

So where are we paying more? Here are the some of the biggest culprits of the so-called pink tax.

As you can see, supermarkets or retailers may try to disguise the pink tax underneath different unit prices but at the end of the day, women are being unfairly charged for something out of their control: their gender.

A US study showed that even outside the retail environment, women are being charged more – particularly when it comes to boys clubs such as car dealerships and mechanics. The study had men and women call various repair shops asking about the cost of having a radiator replaced. Not surprisingly, women didn’t seem like they knew price ranges or what they needed done were quoted $406 for a job that should cost $365. Men who acted similarly uninformed were quoted $383.

“Women often encounter extra expenses by virtue of being women (menstrual products come to mind) — but extra, lady-specific costs sneak into goods and services all genders use, too,” reports The Huffington Post.

It’s costing us $1,350 or more a year than men to buy very similar products, but how can we get around it?

For now, there looks to be one sure-fire way: buy the male brand instead of something in pink packaging and/or aimed specifically at women. Until there’s a law strictly prohibiting retailers from charging you more, then we have to take a stand ourselves.

Tell us below: Have you noticed the pink tax on products and services? Which? What have you done about it?