Women’s Day? Let’s talk about the unseen cost of being a woman: ‘Pink Tax’— What is it and how can you avoid it?

Girls’s Day 2025: International Women’s Day is right here once more on March 8! On this event, whereas we have a good time ladies across the globe, the systemic cycles in each financial system have sure hidden pressures that want to return to the fore. Ever questioned why you is perhaps paying extra tax in comparison with males simply due to your gender? That is referred to as ‘Pink Tax’, girls —the unseen value of being a girl! Girls might should pay extra for equivalent objects than males, who buy them for much less. Let’s perceive what’s pink tax.

The pink tax refers back to the tendency for merchandise marketed particularly towards ladies to be costlier than these marketed towards males. In accordance with research, the pink tax can also be one cause why ladies have comparatively much less buying energy than males. This phenomenon is attributed to gender-based worth discrimination. The pink tax, in actuality, will not be a governmental tax.

Additionally Learn: Are you paying more just because you’re a woman? Unveiling the pink tax

What’s Pink Tax?

In easy phrases, the “Pink Tax” refers to charging ladies greater than males for comparable services or products. The pink tax is a standard phenomenon in India, with ladies being charged extra for merchandise explicitly marketed to them. In accordance with tax specialists, the pink tax is greater than only a pricing variation. It displays deep-seated gender inequality that has financial implications.

The pink tax will not be an precise tax levied by the federal government. Nevertheless, it has seeped into ladies’s merchandise and elevated the retail worth. In accordance with the World Financial Discussion board (WEF), merchandise reminiscent of clothes, footwear, and cosmetics marketed and created just for ladies steadily have larger costs.

Additionally Learn: Stocks, MFs, Gold to PPF: 8 top investment options for women on International Women’s Day 2025

Examples of Pink Tax

For instance, these marketed in the direction of ladies and packaged in pink might value greater than these with a impartial color scheme. Perfumes and razors utilized by ladies value greater than males’s. The imbalance will not be restricted to a pink tax on items; it could additionally apply to providers. For instance, a girl’s haircut is often 60 per cent costlier than a person’s.

In accordance with home brokerage Mirae Asset, which acquired Sharekhan, there are occasional justifications for the pricing discrepancy. Think about haircuts for instance. The traditional reasoning for the value distinction is that since ladies’s hair is normally longer, there may be extra hair to trim and magnificence. As well as, extra consideration to sanitation is required, and girls’s hair might require totally different coaching for the tip results of styling.

Final yr, the government completely exempted sanitary pads from the goods and services tax (GST), charging a zero per cent tax fee on the ultimate sale of sanitary pads in India. Nevertheless, the uncooked supplies used within the manufacturing of sanitary napkins nonetheless appeal to a GST starting from 12 to 18 per cent, which in the end will increase the price of the ultimate product.

New York State Division of Client Affairs present in a research that objects marketed in the direction of ladies had been priced seven per cent larger than these for males or gender-neutral objects, with private care merchandise for ladies exhibiting a 13 per cent worth disparity. Equally, investigations within the UK revealed worth variations, reminiscent of ladies’s deodorant being 8.9 per cent pricier than males’s and girls’s facial moisturizer costing 34.28 per cent extra.

Additionally Learn: International women’s day: Four financial tips every woman should know for smart fund allocation

Influence of Pink Tax

Pink taxes lower ladies’s buying energy, and the final word financial burden maximises present gender inequalities, limiting ladies’s financial empowerment. The pink tax additionally reinforces dangerous stereotypes, suggesting that merchandise for ladies are extra luxurious, justifying the upper worth.

This perpetuates the notion that girls’s wants are much less vital. The World Gender Hole Report 2022 revealed a 19 per cent pay disparity between women and men in India. This wage hole persists throughout numerous industries, from agriculture to IT, pushed by a number of socio-economic elements. Merely put, just a few additional rupees per product equals 1000’s misplaced over a lifetime.

Girls already earn much less because of the wage hole, and the pink tax makes it worse. The luxury tax on menstrual hygiene products will increase this burden. A United Nations report highlighted that globally, ladies earn 77 cents for each greenback males earn. The World Financial Discussion board’s World Gender Hole Report 2022 reveals that solely 5 out of 146 nations analysed have achieved scores larger than 0.80 in wage equality, with 129 nations reporting a decline in ladies’s labour pressure participation in comparison with males’s.

Additionally Learn: Women’s Day 2025: ‘She Directs Ads’ collective launched to amplify voices of Indian female ad directors

India Inc leaders on Pink Tax

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the chief chairperson and founding father of Biocon, India’s first biopharmaceutical firm, highlighted the phenomenon of pink tax and gendered pricing disparity final yr. The billionaire entrepreneur took to the microblogging platform ‘X’ and mentioned, “Pink Tax! A shameful gender bias that girls should reply to by shunning such merchandise!”

Devina Mehra, chairperson, managing director and founding father of main funding administration agency First World, responded to Shaw’s retweet and mentioned, “Not solely that – the standard of merchandise for ladies (suppose shirts) is usually decrease than that for males. Plus, there are ‘financial savings’ for producers as many normal ladies’s garments do not have pockets, whereas males’s garments all the time do – sure, even when the ‘man’ is a 10-month child.”

The right way to keep away from Pink Tax?

1.Examine costs and name out unfair pricing. If you happen to imagine a inexpensive blue model of the identical product can accomplish the identical job, then purchase that over your common pink counterparts.

2.Help the model with gender-neutral pricing. A number of manufacturers and providers provide merchandise on the similar costs for all genders. Be a smart buyer in your procuring bills.

3.Girls’s particular merchandise, reminiscent of shampoos, conditioners, and lotions, are costlier on account of flashy packaging and heavy scents. Think about whether or not you actually want these merchandise and whether or not a inexpensive one will suffice.

Disclaimer: The views and suggestions supplied on this evaluation are these of particular person analysts or broking firms, not Mint. We strongly advise traders to seek the advice of with licensed specialists, think about particular person danger tolerance, and conduct thorough analysis earlier than making funding choices, as market circumstances can change quickly, and particular person circumstances might fluctuate.