Dewy, silk, gentle, soft– the words that companies use to justify making their products more expensive for women, solely because of the difference in color and the slight change in the product description. 

The “pink tax” is not actually a tax but, rather, the extra money that women are charged for products marketed specifically for women. 

When products like deodorant or razors that both men and women use are marketed, the choices made regarding design and appearance force women to pay more for essentially the same item. The only difference being the color: pink or blue.

This brings the question, should the pink tax even exist?

I believe that the pink tax should be eradicated. This discriminatory practice has not only affected women, but has affected young girls. 

On average, girls clothing is 4% more expensive than boys clothing costing 7% more according to New York City DCA Report. 

While some may think that $2.49 versus $1.69 for shaving cream is not a big difference, that extra money targets women into spending more money on items that are needed in their daily lives. 

From a female perspective, I find that companies marketing more expensive products towards women purely for the revenue, absurd.

Companies make it clear that male products are for men and female products are for women with the design and marketing, despite the minor differences within the products. 

In response to the “Pink Tax”, many people are working against it with campaigns and bills such as the Pink Tax Repeal Act, European’s Wax Center’s #AxthePinkTax campaign and Boxed’s #RethinkPink campaign. 

The Pink Tax Repeal Act, a bipartisan bill that aspires to end gender discrimination in the pricing of goods and services, was reintroduced in 2021 by Congresswoman Jackie Speier.

Despite the lack of action taken to stop this Pink Tax, New York implemented a ban on businesses charging a pink tax for their products. This new law prohibits the charging different prices  of “substantially similar” goods based on gender for who it is marketed for.

These changes that New York implemented must continue to work their way through the United States to put an end to this gender discrimination of product pricing.