Last quarter, I was in a class that required students to write a memo about an issue they cared about, in hopes to inspire change. While I’ve never been a hugely political person, I do genuinely care about human rights’ issues. This assignment gave me an excuse to bring up one of the topics that is being discussed in society today, but certainly not by our male counterparts at DU (and maybe not even by Colorado government): tampons.
Because, if they are going to make laws about tampons and live in a society with laws that involve tampons, they should be able to discuss them, am I right?
Basically, the “tampon tax” is a term that has been adopted to encompass the sales tax placed on feminine products like tampons and sanitary napkins. It really is being used as a “catch all” term for feminine hygiene products.
The conversation about the taxation of feminine hygiene products really began with our good old Canadian neighbors last May when a motion was passed to eliminate the “tampon tax.” While they were the first country to eradicate the tax, other countries joined the fight, including France and Australia.
According to the article, “These are the U.S. States that Tax Women for Having Periods,” 40 states have a “tampon tax” in the United States (Hillin, 2015). It should be noted that five of the ten states that do not have a “tampon tax” just do not have sales tax at all—thus only five states are really involved in creating equality on this issue. Unluckily for our female population at DU, Colorado is one of the states that still taxes feminine hygiene products.
Just for a quick side bar on how sales taxes are determined in the United States: sales tax is decided at the state-level, with additional taxes applied by the city or county. So, in Colorado, the state sales tax is 2.9%. However, after Denver’s additional rates, the total tax for non-food items is around 7.62%. Since sales taxes are decided by the states separately, each of the 50 states would have to abolish the tax to stop tampons from being taxed in the U.S.!
An article in the Huffington Post estimated the number of periods a female had in her lifetime, along with the number of tampons the average female uses per cycle. Given the sales tax in Denver, and using the Huffington Post estimations, I calculated that the average woman in Denver will spend $1,774.46 on tampons in their lifetime before tax, with an additional $135.29 of sales tax.
Maybe that does not seem like a lot to the average person, or (not to stereotype) maybe that does not seem like a lot to the average person at a private university. But, the fact of the matter is that women are being charged a fee for being women!
Another aggravating piece of this issue? When states decide sales tax, they often exempt things from taxation that they consider “necessities.” This mostly includes groceries, but varies from state to state and can comprise of things from prescription medicine, to even clothing and agricultural supplies (Hillin, 2015). Yet, to reiterate, tampons still aren’t included in this necessity grouping for 40 out of 50 states!
The exclusion of feminine hygiene products from the list of tax-exempt necessities simply implies that feminine hygiene products are not necessary during menstruation. However, to endure one’s cycle without proper feminine hygiene products is dehumanizing, unhygienic, and creates a further gap between women and the rest of society. In the end, if a product is essential for roughly half of the population to go about their ordinary day, it should be considered a necessity.
This tax is especially relevant considering the recent movements toward gender equality. The “tampon tax” movement falls in a time where campaigns such as “Free the Nipple” and the “Equal Pay and Wage Gap” exist. Colorado has led the United States in these controversial issues, (and let us not forget the legalization of marijuana) and I don’t see why we should be slinking to the background this time.
I get that people are worried that eliminating this tax could become somewhat of a slippery slope when it comes to the taxation of other hygiene products, but the bottom line is that things like soap are not exclusive to a group of people. Eliminating a tax on a product that is needed by women would certainly help to narrow the gender divide.