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1
beMUN 2019
COMMITTEE: UNWOMEN
TOPIC: GENDER BASED PRICING, A.K.A. THE PINK TAX
The pink tax refers to the extra amount women are charged for certain products or services.
Things like dry cleaning, personal care products, and vehicle maintenance. So not only do
women make less but they pay more. Women also live longer so they actually need more
money for retirement. It’s a gender-based pricing, also known as “pink tax,” an upcharge on
products traditionally intended for women which have only cosmetic differences from
comparable products traditionally intended for men.
In other words, it’s not actually a tax. It’s an “income-generating scenario for private
companies who found a way to make their product look either more directed to or more
appropriate for the population and saw that as a moneymaker,” explains Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, a
lawyer, vice president for the Brennan School of Justice at NYU School of Law, and co-founder
of Period Equity.
INTRODUCTION:
During the last year dresses, pants, underwear, stocking and other garments for women
registered an inflation superior to the masculine cases. Trousers for example have risen 2.4% in
the case of women, while for men the increase is 2% around the globe.
“Women are paid less and it’s expected for them to spend more on products and services,
they charge more simply for being woman”
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The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women agreed on a roadmap to women’s
full and equal participation in the economy as a vital step to achieving sustainable development.
Member States during these sessions further called for an end to the practice of gender-based
price differentiation, also known as the ‘pink tax’ – whereby goods and services intended for or
marketed to women and girls cost more than similar items marketed to men and boys during the
last couple of years.
HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM:
The concept of "pink tax" appears in the 1990s in California, United States, a country where
discriminatory prices by gender are not prohibited, found that gender-based pricing represented
more than $ 1,300 extra for women every year. In Britain, the issue was raised in Parliament after
an investigation by The Times discovered that women could be paying almost twice as much as
what a man paid for what appeared to be identical products. It is estimated that the pay gap
between men and women is almost 23%, according to the "Equal Pay" report, prepared by the
International Labor Organization. Women earn 77% of what men earn. This difference varies
according to the sector of the market, the occupation and the country.
The director of the Marketing Department of the School of Business Administration and
Management (ESADE), Marco Bertini, who said that some companies say that the costs of the
products are different because they require different materials to make them. For him, the pink
rate is a marketing issue because women are willing to pay more for the products they consume.
Worldwide, there is a wage inequality between men and women. In general, women receive
a lower salary than men, and yet they pay more than men for the same products
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CURRENT SITUATION
This is considered as an economic discrimination based on gender. The feminine products have
an elevation more than 7% compared to the masculine products. In comparison with other
problems of this type, it does not have any kind of attention compared to others. In some other
countries it has been possible to punish some companies that decide to raise the price to
exclusive products for women. According to a World Bank study, they account for approximately
70% of global purchasing decisions.
Visible study is the one executed by the French State as a result of an action stimulated by
the feminist group Georgette Sand in which the population was invited to share photos in their
social networks of pink tax cases
CONTROVERSIAL POINTS
• Tariffs.
The tariffs on some imported goods vary by whether the product is made for men or
women. On average, clothing imports for women are taxed at a higher rate than clothing
imports for men—15.1 percent compared to 11.9 percent. The higher costs of importing
may be passed on to consumers and contribute to the markup on some goods targeted
to women.
• Product differentiation.
One common marketing strategy firms employ is “product differentiation.” Sellers
frequently distinguish a product or service from others to make it more attractive to a
particular target market, for example by changing the packaging and altering the color of
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a product. However, doing so may increase the cost of production. For example, a
manufacturer may choose to produce a smaller number of pink razors, which could
increase the cost of producing each pink razor relative to the larger run of black razors.
• Price discrimination.
The practice of charging customers different prices for the same product or service is
known in economics as price discrimination. Sellers attract buyers who would otherwise
not purchase their product by offering those buyers a lower price. But it can also mean
higher prices for others who are willing to pay more. Some common examples of price
discrimination include student or senior discounts, discounts for advanced purchases of
airline tickets and higher prices for last-minute purchases.21 If sellers find that women
are less price sensitive and therefore willing to pay more for a particular product or
service, they are more likely to charge a higher Price for a version marketed to women.
• Price fixing.
Some markets may not be fully competitive, and competitors who would drive down
inexplicably high prices for women’s versions of products and services may be prevented
from entering the market. As a result, firms holding a significant share of market power
would be able to continue charging more for goods and services targeting women. This
could indicate that there is a role for government intervention as the federal government
takes an active role in maintaining competitive markets
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INVOLVED COUNTRIES
The pink tax refers to the price difference in products; it also includes taxation of tampons and
pads as luxury items, also called the tampon tax.
Forty states in the United States of America impose a tax, being California, Hawaii and New
York the states with the highest rates of this tax.
Illustation 1.1 From Phillipines, two scooters for boy and girl
Similarly, personal products in the Philippines are also more expensive for women compared
to men. An online grocery retailer sells razor knives for men for P 81.75 and female razors for the
same brand for P 122.25.
Also in Latin America we can find examples such as Argentina where women's products on
average are 14% more expensive than those for men. But not only in the American continent is
where we can find this tax since in France according to multiple women “A packet of five pink
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disposable razors was priced at 1.80 Euros, or about $2.25, while a packet of 10 blue disposable
razors was priced at €1.72”. In addition, a quick look from The Associated Press to the prices of
haircuts and store aisles in Paris found some disparities. Haircut: women 43 euros, men 26.
Deodorant roll-on: women 2.04 euros, men 1.96. Shaving gel: 2.87 euros in a pink bottle, 2.39 in
a blue.
Illustration 1.2 - Price differentiation in EU
In Mexico we can also find these disparities, recently a study was made and found a bicycle in
pink is more expensive than blue (2,290 pesos against 2,330) taking into account that it is the
same model and only
the color has been
changed.
Illustration 1.3 - Price differentiation in Mexico
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REFERENCES:
• García, Ana Karen. (2018). Pink tax: la cara invisible de la desigualdad de precios por género. 27
January 2019, From El Economista, Online:
https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/empresas/Pink-tax-la-cara-invisible-de-la-
desigualdad-de-precios-por-genero-20181003-0046.html
• King, Theresa. (2017). The Pink Tax: Yes, It's Real. 27 January 2019, From Odyssey, Online
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/pink-tax-real
• Del Real, Janneth. (2018). Impuesto rosa, una realidad… desde México hasta Argentina. 27 January
2019, From Expoknews. Online https://www.expoknews.com/impuesto-rosa-una-realidad-
desde-mexico-hasta-argentina/
• N.A. (2017). Are women overcharged? France probes price of pink. 27 January 2019, From Daily
Mail. Online https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-2840654/Are-women-
overcharged-France-probes-price-pink.html
• Danee Torres. (2018). This is why women’s products are often more expensive. 27 January 2019,
From Nolisoli, Online http://nolisoli.ph/45788/pink-tax/
• Chavez, Valeria (2018) “Pink tax”, la cara menos visible de la desigualdad de género que
afecta la economía de las mujeres en todo el mundo. Online:
https://www.infobae.com/tendencias/2018/03/30/pink-tax-la-cara-menos-visible-de-la-
desigualdad-de-genero-que-afecta-la-economia-de-las-mujeres-en-todo-el-mundo/
• Sebastian, Clare. (2016) ¿Por qué las mujeres pagan más que los hombres por las mismas
cosas? Online: https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2016/03/08/por-que-las-mujeres-pagan-
mas-que-los-hombres-por-las-mismas-cosas/