#029: End the Pink Tax. Period.

Women endure a slew of disadvantages when it comes to financial security. Though it’s cheekily referred to as the “pink tax”, the additional cost women incur for personal-care products, toys, clothing, dry cleaning, health care, mortgages, and vehicle maintenance is no joking matter. It inflates our budgets, limits our ability to save, and sometimes hinders our ability to access affordable and safe sources of credit.

Based on that semi-intense description of the pink tax, you may think it’s already been made illegal to charge someone more on the basis of their gender. But that’s not true. There’s no federal law prohibiting companies from charging different prices for products that are identical (or very similar), but which are marketed by gender. At least not currently.

Only one U.S. municipality — Miami-Dade County — has banned this practice. California enacted a similar restriction in 1995, but it applies only to the pricing of services. New York City followed in 1998.

On top of the pink tax, women still earn less than their male counterparts. The average woman is paid 82 cents for every $1 her male colleagues earn; the discrepancy is much worse for women of color.

When you’re paying more for basic goods and services from birth until death — just because you’re female — it’s easy to understand why so many women are pushing to “Ax the Pink Tax.”

About Michael Cone, Esq.
Michael Cone, Esq. is a Partner at FisherBroyles, LLP. He is a Customs, International Trade, and Regulatory Compliance Attorney, with more than 20 years of experience in federal regulatory compliance, customs, and international trade law and has been featured in print and broadcast media including the New York Times, NPR, CNN Money, and CBS News. 

In 2007, the New York Times featured Mr. Cone's lawsuit challenging gender-based customs duties on its front page.

On March 8, 2016, Mr. Cone launched his website Pink.Tax, which coincided with International Women’s Day. The goal of Pink.Tax is to raise grassroots awareness of how women are disadvantaged by gender-based price discrimination affecting retail consumer goods and services like razors and haircuts, and to fight against this global phenomenon called the "Pink Tax". Its broader secondary goal is to identify, raise awareness about, and fight other gender-based financial discrimination against women (such as lower pay for equal work, known as the "Gender Pay Gap"). 

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