History Of The Pink Tax
One of the earliest attempts to combat the pink tax came from California in the mid-’90s. In 1994, the California Assembly Office of Research issued a report stating that 64% of businesses in five major cities were charging more to wash and clean a woman’s shirt than a man’s. This, among other findings in the report, led to California passing the Gender Tax Repeal of 1995. The new law was aimed at regulating services like haircuts and dry cleaning, instead of products, and required businesses to charge the same price for a service, regardless of the customer’s gender – if it took the same time, cost and skills to produce. In 1998, New York City’s then-mayor signed a similar bill. It also allowed the New York City DCA to collect fines from businesses who broke this rule.
There have also been several attempts to federally repeal the pink tax in Congress. This bill, aptly named the Pink Tax Repeal Act, aimed to “prohibit manufacturers or service providers from selling substantially similar products at different prices based on the gender of the intended purchaser.” It would have also given the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general the authority to enforce these requirements. Though the bill was introduced in 2016, and has been reintroduced several times since, it has not passed.
Current Laws On Pink Taxation
Currently, the states of New York and California, as well as Miami-Dade county in Florida have laws banning the pink tax.
In New York, the current law mandates that “substantially similar” goods can’t be priced differently based on the gender of the intended consumer. This means that two items with comparable materials, features, intended use, and design that are made by the same brand should be the same price. For example, if a business made a blue scooter and a pink scooter with the same materials, design and features, the two products should cost the same amount.
In 2023, California implemented a similar law banning the pink tax. This ban, much like its New York counterpart, also prevents “substantially similar” goods and services from being different prices based on the gender of the consumer. It also only allows pricing differences if there are significant variations in the cost or time required to produce a good.
Miami-Dade county in Florida also has a law banning the pink tax, where businesses can only charge more if a good requires more time, difficulty or cost to produce.
Seeing these laws, a person may be tempted to ask if the pink tax is still a thing The answer is yes. In fact, several more states have recently introduced their own bills to fight it, namely Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Washington.
