Things Women Always Pay More For

There's no denying that it's an interesting time to be a woman, to say the least. Regardless of where you land on the political spectrum, it's hard to deny that there are times when women just aren't treated the same as men. Case in point, the wage gap. In 2015 in the United States, women working full-time made, on average, just 80 percent of what men made. Just to spell it out, that's 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. This varies somewhat from state to state, between 64 percent and 89 percent, but in no state in the United States in 2015, did women on average make the same amount as men, and it isn't because their jobs are different. 

While the wage gap is an entirely separate discussion worthy of its own dissection, we're here to talk about not what women make, but what women pay. That's because despite getting paid less than men, there are many items that, while pretty much identical, women pay more for. Well, they're identical except for the fact that they're often pink, hence this phenomenon of female-marketed products costing more than male-marketed products being dubbed the "pink tax." It isn't just material goods, either. Here are just a few of the things women always pay more for.

While razors can certainly be included in the category of health and beauty items, it's worth noting that other products in this category are also more expensive for women, than men. This includes deodorant, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, and body wash that all cost more if you get the versions targeted toward women. 

That same study on gender pricing in NYC found that women pay 11 percent more for lotion, six percent more for body wash, three percent more for deodorant, and a whopping 48 percent more for shampoo and conditioner! Even though the study was conducted out of NYC, researchers looked at different brands and stores (as well as online), "including high-end, low-end, and median price ranges" and the differences persisted. 

To add insult to injury, according to StyleCaster, a lot of these products share the same ingredients, with the only differences being packaging and fragrance. Also, be sure to look at the size! The NYC gender pricing study found that sometimes the prices for products were similar, but that's because the men's product came in a larger size, equating to women paying more for less. In this case, size does matter.

With many of the other items, you could potentially argue that the requirements are different for women's products. Maybe razors have to be designed differently, beauty care items necessitate different ingredients for a woman's needs, and women's haircuts take longer. While that's still a weak argument, as we've already outlined, it doesn't begin to explain why cars are more expensive for women. 

Sadly, we've known since at least the '90s (maybe even earlier) that this is the case. A 1991 study in the Harvard Law Review offered evidence that car dealerships offered much better prices to white men than those offered to black men or women of any race. In this research, white women paid 40 percent more than white men and black men paid three times as much as white men. When they talked to people of their own race or gender, they actually got even worse deals! While you may think those days are long gone, several follow-up studies have show this persists even when test-buyers are trained to negotiate in identical ways. So it isn't about men being better hagglers, women really do pay more for cars, regardless.

You would think that while material goods might be one thing, surely that's where it ends. Unfortunately, research has found that women pay more than men when it comes to loans and credit. That is, women's interest rates on loans and credit cards is higher than for men. A 2013 study in Italy found this is true regardless of what bank is chosen, the borrower's other characteristics, his or her credit history, and the structure of the credit market. According to the researchers, the exact same banks charge different rates for men and women, despite lack of evidence that women are "riskier" for credit. 

Another study out of Brazil found that while women are no more likely to be denied outright for a loan, their loans have a lower glass ceiling, meaning it's harder for women to be approved for loans as large as those for men, even when controlling for other factors.

From jeans to sweaters and work clothes to socks, women's clothes cost more. Sure, there are some legitimate reasons this might be the case, especially when it comes to different kinds of fabrics, detail work, additional embellishments, etc. But it turns out that even when these differences are taken into consideration, women's clothing still costs more than men's clothing. 

Old Navy ran into trouble in 2014 when customer Renee Posey noticed that while plus size women's jeans were more expensive than the smaller sizes, men's larger sizes were the same price as the smaller sizes. While Posey said in an online petition that she was okay with paying more for larger clothing because of the extra material required, she was surprised to see that men's clothing didn't receive the same price increase for the extra material. She wrote, "Selling jeans to larger-sized men at the same cost as they sell to smaller men not only negates the cost of manufacture argument, but indicates that Old Navy is participating in both sexism and sizeism, directed only at women." 

A writer at GQ, who admits this is an issue with designer clothing as well, points to the possibility that women are charged more because, by and large, they're willing to pay it. She said, "Men are thought to approach buying clothes with more pragmatism, which prevents retailers from hiking up prices without reason." Just because you can get away with something doesn't mean you should.

While kids don't have to worry about mortgages, dry cleaning, or shaving products, they're unfortunately not immune to cost (and marketing) differences based on gender. In recent years, many stores have caught flak for gender-specific marketing that has been deemed sexist. While many of these complaints have been based on the fact that toys are separated into "toys traditionally for boys" and "toys traditionally for girls" in catalogs and stores there is also an issue when it comes to the price of identical products. 

Girls' toys, clothes, craft supplies, bikes, and backpacks all cost more than than the same products for boys. Fortune reported on an analysis conducted by the pricing consultancy company Boomerang Commerce that looked at 50 different products on multiple major web retailer sites that all offered options for color selection. The products covered 17 different categories, including toys, clothing, and electronics. All of the products were offered in several different colors, including pink. The pink version was more expensive in every single case. 

Interestingly enough, while the products weren't explicitly called boys' or girls' products, the images on the various sites showed girls with the pink products and boys with the other products. Also interesting, while the manufacturers' prices were also somewhat higher for girls' products, the biggest differences came when the retailers themselves had a special offer price.