It’s a sad reality, and the impact even more devastating in a global recession: women are being financially ripped off – still.
Ten years after the Equality Act, and 50 years after the Equal Pay Act, the gender pay gap stands at a difference of 8.9% for all full-time employees – meaning women earn on average 91.1p for every £1 a man makes. Women are charged for buying sanitary products, whereas the NHS offers free condoms for men at sexual health clinics and some GP surgeries.
And then comes the ‘pink tax’; a form of gender-based price discrimination, whereby many of the products and services bought by women are significantly more expensive than those bought by men. It applies to items throughout the span of a woman’s lifetime – from girl’s toys, to calculators (where some retail brands charge extra for the same calculator in pink), to school uniforms, haircuts, shampoos, deodorants, clothes, and even the cost of dry cleaning. Toiletries in supermarkets are up to 25% more expensive when aimed at women, says the Fawcett Society.
A recent study by The Sun newspaper showed that everyday items aimed at women could cost up to 67% extra and listed these examples:
The pink tax is more prevalent than ever during what some have called a ‘pink-collar recession’. Throughout Covid-19, the economic downturn has placed more of an economic burden on women, with a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies finding that mothers were 1.5 times more likely than fathers to have either lost their job or quit since lockdown started. Women also make up 70% of health and social care workers globally, putting them at greater risk of infection and therefore making them more likely to have to stop working due to illness.
Christine Jardine, the Liberal Democrat MP, is working hard to make the pink tax a relic, saying, “My Private Member’s Bill calling for an end to Pink Tax was prompted by the fact that women and girls can still be paying anything up to 20 per cent extra for basic items, such as toiletries, clothes and haircuts. On average, women can pay around £200 a year more than men, and if you have a family with two teenage girls that has an impact on the household budget. This injustice is exacerbated by the gender pay gap which means we are paid less but pay out more. There is no scientific, biological, or any other justifiable reason and it’s time gender pricing of any kind was ended.” The Bill comes up for debate next year.
Meanwhile the best way to avoid the pink tax is to ‘comparison shop’ and not be caught out by product names. For example, Wilkinson Sword Beauty Disposable Razors are almost indistinguishable from men’s sensitive razors. A woman’s dressing gown may have an additional ribbon detail, but that’s hardly worth the price hike.
We can also lobby those companies which still impose it, by spreading awareness and ‘naming and shaming’. Some individuals are using the social media hashtags #genderpricing, #pinktax, and #axethepinktax.
Some companies are actively fighting the pink tax. Boxed (an online company selling groceries and health products) has a ‘pink tax free’ section on its website, listing products that are for sale at gender neutral prices. Billie, a subscription-based razor company, offers a discount called The Pink Tax Rebate. “On behalf of the razor companies out there,” Billie says on its website, “we’re sorry you’re overpaying for pink razors. It’s time you got some money back.”
