When you’re wandering the aisles of a pharmacy or supermarket, have you ever noticed the various products that are nearly identical, just marketed toward different genders? For example, a pink razor for women versus a blue razor for men. A “for her” floral-scented shampoo in dainty packaging versus a “for him” 4-in-1 shampoo that doubles as body wash, face wash and probably car cleaner, too. Deodorant with lilac casing that smells like lavender versus a manly Axe body spray. While these products share the same function, there are often disparities in price. This phenomenon is called the “pink tax,” otherwise known as gender-based price discrimination.
In many cases, women’s products tend to cost more, even when the contents are identical to those marketed for men. For years, this tax has imposed an economic burden on women, forcing them to spend hundreds of dollars extra per year, often just for pretty colors and feminine packaging. This issue has been ongoing for decades, to the extent that even the United Nations called for an end to this discrimination. What was once a silent form of economic injustice quickly gained public attention, with the term “pink tax” and its meaning becoming more widely recognized among women. However, there’s a deeper layer to this price gap that is rarely discussed, and it’s time we talk about it. That layer is known as pink tariffs.
If you’ve been following the news in recent weeks, you have likely come across this buzzword amid the waves of tariffs being rolled out by the Trump administration. Tariffs are taxes charged on goods imported from other countries. For example, in most cases, if there is a 10% tariff imposed on a $20 product, $2 would be added in tax, raising the total cost to $22. So far, the Trump administration has proposed tariffs ranging from 10% to 245%; these tariffs would increase the prices of products such as automobiles, electronics, home appliances, furniture, clothing, shoes, alcohol and more. Statistically speaking, the U.S. has systematically placed higher tariffs on products marketed toward women compared to those marketed toward men, especially in industries such as fashion. In fact, a 2018 study by the U.S. International Trade Commission confirmed that women do pay more than men for gendered products like clothing, shoes and accessories.
According to research conducted by Edward Gresser, the Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at the Progressive Policy Institute, the tariff system generally taxes women’s clothing more heavily than men’s, which ends up costing American women over $2 billion per year. CNN reports that this is because the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) — which is responsible for setting the tariff rates in statistical categories — separates most clothing by gender and freely imposes different rates on similar items based on this division.
For example, using data from 2017 tariff revenue, Gresser found that men’s underwear was taxed at 8.6%, whereas women’s underwear was taxed at 12.8%. Similarly, men’s suits were taxed at 13.3%, compared to a steeper rate of 15.1% for women’s suits. On average, tariff rates were 2.9 percentage points higher for women’s clothing than for men’s. And again, this was all the way back in 2017. In 2022, Gresser revisited tariff rates and found that the gap had grown even further. Women’s clothing faced a tariff rate of 16.7%, compared to 13.6% for men’s clothing — a 3.1% difference.
With over 98% of clothing sold in the U.S. imported from abroad, the majority of our purchases in this category are impacted by tariffs. And with the Trump administration proposing additional tariffs on various international trading partners, this disparity is only set to get worse.