‘Pink Tax’ does exists, women pay much more than men for the same thing
- Staff Writer: James de Villiers
Women pay more for cosmetics and clothing than men, says Use Your Voice (UYV), a non-profit organisation that distributes sanitary pads across South Africa.
In a Facebook post on Friday, since shared more than 6,600 times, UYV compared the prices of daily-use items such as razors, day cream, and clothes to show how much more women pay.
It is estimated that women pay as much as 13% more for personal care products.
“If you do feel the need to comment that this is fake, and that you do not agree, we highly recommend that you do the research yourself,” the organisation said about the price comparison. So we did.
Business Insider South Africa visited one grocery retailer, one clothing retailer, and one health and beauty retailer, to do our own comparison.
Here are the differences in prices for similar products aimed at men and women we found:
Women are expected to pay R25 more for similar razor blades.
Women pay R20 for the same t-shirt, on promotion.
Similar vitamins by the same label costs R16 more for women.
Women's deodorant costs R2 more than for men at two different stores.
And spray deodorant costs R10 more.
Across our sample of products, women were expected to pay 18% more for what appears to be the same products for men.
