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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 2015)
Page 6 New Prices Effective May 1, 2014 September 2, 2015 O PINION Martin Paying the Pink Tax at $1,400 a Year Unfair markups Cleaning for gender Service M ARTHA B URK You probably think you know about all the taxes you pay. Income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes — it seems like the list is end- less. But there’s one tax I’ve been paying for most of my life that you might not know about. If you’re a woman, chanc- es are you’re paying it too. It’s called the pink tax. What is it? It’s the premium you pay for goods and services that are marketed to women, even when they’re identical to those sold as “men’s” products at a cheaper price. One study calcu- BY Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services Minimum Service CHG. $45.00 $VPDOOGLVWDQFHWUDYHO charge may be applied CARPET CLEANING 2 Cleaning Areas or more $30.00 Each Area 3UH6SUD\7UDI¿F$UHDV lated this “tax” at an extra $1,400 a year. <RX¶OO¿QGDORWRIWKHVHLWHPV in drugstores — stuff like razors, deodorants, wrinkle creams, shaving creams, even pain killers. The pink tax also creeps in at dry cleaners, where a plain women’s white shirt often costs more than a man’s shirt, which is usu- ally bigger and made from lon- ger-lasting fabric. High-end products are no ex- ception. Manufacturers of scents charge less for men’s cologne than they do for ladies’ perfume — even though the ingredients are the same. Women’s plus- sized clothing costs more than the regular sizes. If you think it’s because more fabric is used, WKLQN DJDLQ 0HQ¶V SOXV VL]HV cost about the same as the small- er sizes. It’s easy to see for yourself. Researchers for Mic.com sam- pled a handful of common drug- store products. They found pink razors for $12.49, while blue ra- zors from the same brand ran just $10.99. Women’s deodorant was $4.99. Men’s, only $3.29. And even though Excedrin Complete Menstrual contains the same ingredients as Excedrin Extra Strength, that “M” word costs half a buck extra for the same size bottle. Twenty years ago, California did a study that uncovered lots of this gendered pricing, leading to a statute that outlawed the prac- tice. But no other states followed suit, so women in the other 49 could be stuck paying more. There’s one bit of good news. Before the Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies could and did charge women more for the exact same coverage men got. And not because of maternity coverage — that often wasn’t in- cluded in the policies at all. When Obamacare passed, sex discrimi- nation in health insurance pricing became illegal. But the pink tax is still very much alive. A nickel here and 50 cents there adds up to over a thousand bucks a year for the typ- ical female shopper. And that’s real money. Martha Burk is the director of the Corporate Accountability Project for the National Council of Women’s Organizations. Dis- tributed by OtherWords.org. (Includes: 1 small Hallway) 1 Cleaning Area (only) $40.00 ,QFOXGHV3UH6SUD\7UDI¿F$UHD (Hallway Extra) Stairs (12-16 stairs - With Other Services) Area/Oriental Rugs $25.00 Minimum Area/Oriental Rugs (Wool) $40.00 Minimum Heavily Soiled Area Additional $10.00 each area (Requiring Extensive Pre-Spraying) UPHOLSTERY CLEANING 6RID /RYHVHDW 6HFWLRQDO &KDLURU5HFOLQHU $25 - $49 Throw Pillows (With Other Services) ADDITIONAL SERVICES • Area & Oriental Rug Cleaning $XWR%RDW59&OHDQLQJ • Deodorizing & Pet Odor Treatment • Spot & Stain Removal Service • Scotchguard Protection • Minor Water Damage Services SEE CURRENT FLYER FOR ADDITIONAL PRICES & SERVICES Call for Appointment (503) 281-3949 Fed Shouldn’t Be Discussing Interest Rate Hikes The case for black workers W ILLIAM S PRIGGS The recently released minutes of the last meeting of the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee re- vealed there was seri- ous discussion of the fact the labor market still showed signs of weakness. A primary issue was the lack of evidence of strong wage growth, which would be a clear signal the labor market was tightening. This has unleashed the Wall Street bettors, who want a jump on the Fed’s changing monetary policy, giving them more active play on the bond market, where interest rate movements can fuel their gambling addiction. The voices being raised to have the Fed raise interest rates march out lots of theory to predict uncon- WUROOHG LQÀDWLRQ GHVSLWH D JOREDO slowdown, falling oil and natural UHVRXUFHSULFHVDQGÀDWUHDOZDJHV We must hope that the Fed makes policy based on what is good for the economy, not what is good for the reckless gamblers on Wall Street. The current directive to the Fed comes from the Humphrey-Haw- kins Act, which in 1978 estab- lished that the nation’s primary economic policy is to achieve full employment, within reason -- not by creating unsustainable budget GH¿FLWV RU LJQLWLQJ XQFRQWUROODEOH LQÀDWLRQ Unfortunately, many have twisted the legislation’s purpose to their own ends, changing the BY act’s intent to balance budgets and PDLQWDLQ ORZ LQÀDWLRQ LQ KRSHV those policies don’t increase un- employment. The act does not place full employment on HTXDOIRRWLQJZLWK¿JKWLQJ LQÀDWLRQ LW PHUHO\ FRQ- strains full-employment policy to a measure of pru- dence. With that in mind, the Fed should understand it is not at full employment. In addition to wages rising with productivity, a main tenant of ev- idence of full employment, the Fed needs to embrace some addi- tional senses of full employment. African Americans, and that these circumstances will persist no mat- ter what the level of unemploy- ment. Of course, many economists do appreciate that this pat answer is hard to reconcile with the great sensitivity that the black unem- ployment rate has to the economy -- a tightening labor market brings down the black unemployment rate at twice the rate for whites. That makes the structural argu- PHQWGLI¿FXOWWRPDLQWDLQ There is another key element. The unemployment rate gaps between blacks and whites are stubborn at every education lev- The unemployment rate gaps between blacks and whites are stubborn at every education level, and the gaps are glaring. One is that discrimination would disappear, since it would become prohibitively costly in a full-em- ployment economy. A problem for the Fed is that there is little diversity in its staff- LQJ ZKLFK UHÀHFWV WKH ORZ OHYHO of diversity among economists. Economists have convinced them- selves there is little to explain about the persistence of the dis- parity in black and white unem- ployment rates, the ratio of which remains stubbornly at 2-to-1. It is enough to assume there are lower skill levels among African Ameri- cans and societal structural issues that permanently disadvantage el, and the gaps are glaring. In fact, what the unemployment rate gaps suggest is the old ad- age that blacks must be twice as good to compete in the la- bor market with whites. The unemployment rate for African Americans with more education is similar to that of whites with less education. This is true for blacks at all education levels, from college graduates to associ- ate degree holders to high school JUDGXDWHV$QGLWLVYHU\GLI¿FXOW to argue that those huge gaps do QRWUHÀHFWGLVFULPLQDWLRQ When the labor market tanks, and the number of unemployed workers per job opening goes up, the gaps faced by better educated blacks to less educated whites get wider. Black college graduates ¿QG WKHPVHOYHV ZLWK XQHPSOR\- ment rates closer to white high school graduates, and blacks with DVVRFLDWHGHJUHHV¿QGWKHPVHOYHV with unemployment rates worse than white high school dropouts. When the labor market tight- ens, unemployment rates for blacks with more education im- prove such that they are better than those of less educated whites, though still off the mark compared with equally educated whites. When employers are faced with two unemployed working people for each job opening, many stop seeing color and start seeing qual- L¿FDWLRQV (PSOR\HUV IDFHG ZLWK a growing economy and smaller DSSOLFDQWSRROV¿QGLWZRXOGQRZ cost to discriminate by passing RYHUWKHTXDOL¿HG$IULFDQ$PHUL- can applicant. We don’t know what would happen if the nation maintained its commitment to full employment, because just as the black unemploy- ment rates near parity with whites, our economic policy switches all re- verse to slow the economy, increase unemployment and push blacks off the path to equality. The Fed needs to see that its policies are part of that problem. Slowing the economy before we reach full employment means em- ployers never have to raise wages nor understand the costs of their discriminatory practices. William Spriggs is chief econo- mist for the AFL-CIO and a pro- fessor in the Department of Eco- nomics at Howard University.
