Should women’s products cost more than men’s? - YouTube

Liz: Listen up ladies!

What would you say if I said that you were being screwed out of $100,000?

That's real money! Cold hard cash!

And no, I'm not talking about the pay gap, I'm talking about the money that you lose

By shopping in the women's aisle.

Across America, retailers are charging more for products targeted at women than those targeted at men.

This gendered pricing, the pink tax, happens in salons, dry cleaners, and most visibly, in pharmacies.

The worst part? You probably don't know it's happening.

This is Alex. He's a man.

If we were to go to a pharmacy together and we were to buy products...

So, what kind of products do you buy at a pharmacy?

Alex: Uhh, condoms.

Liz: Mhmm, first one.

Alex: Advil.

Liz: What kind of deodorant do you buy?

Alex: Old spice.

Liz: Okay. So, Degree. They have a female one and a male one.

So do you think that those are the same price?

Alex: Yeah, I'd imagine they're the same price per ounce.

But, I could be wrong.

Liz: We each bought 5 personal care items targeted at our gender.

Same brands, same sizes, and with the same active ingredients.

I have the bills, the receipts.

So, the women's razor was $12.49 and the men's razor was $10.99

Alex: No way! 2 bucks difference!

Liz: Deodorant for women was $4.99 and for men it was only $3.29

Alex: Wow.

Liz: Women's shaving cream was $3.49 men's shaving cream was $2.89

Wrinkle cream for women was $14.79 and the wrinkle cream for men was $13.99

And when it comes to the body wash, the women's was $5.49 and the men's was $4.99

Alex: Wow, you tally that up, that's like, I dunno a lot of money.

Liz: So in total, I paid $42.69 for my products.

Alex: Alright and I paid $37.42.

That's a big difference.

Liz: Even though the prices were so different, the products seemed to be almost exactly the same.

Just to make sure we weren't missing anything, we swapped products for a week.

Alex: So, I'm Alex, and we have all of the female products here in my bathroom.

Liz: Oh my god there are bubbles! Oh my god the bubbles!

We have Nivea men, it's supposed to give me energy.

Alex: This is feminine! This is amazing!

Liz: I'm just gonna pour it on. Can you see it? Oh that, oh yeah that's nice.

Alex: It's time to shave.

Maybe it's a slightly different design, but it's pretty much the same.

Liz: Are you shocked that using these products is essentially the same as using these products?

Alex: I mean I wasn't shocked because we went through the ingredients and they're pretty much exactly the same.

I'm just shocked that they're more expensive.

So I just think women are kind of getting ripped off.

Liz: We are.

Alex: Yeah.

Liz: So why are women getting screwed?

To get some answers, I sat down with someone who's been fighting gendered pricing for years.

Trade lawyer, MIchael Cone.

Michael says that this is a systemic problem. It's products,

Michael: When you go into the drug store, personal hygiene are higher for women.

Liz: It's services...

Michael: Dry cleaning is often more expensive as a service for women

Liz: And it's actual taxes.

Michael: Women's shoes are higher with import taxes.

Which by the way is about 60 million dollars a year more that uncle sam collects on women's shoes than on men's shoes

And then that gets passed along.

Liz: To fix it, let's start by getting everyone to recognize that this is a real problem.

Liz: A lot of people say well, the marketing's different. like this one has all kinds of special roses painted on it.

Michael: Well marketing is certainly not a good excuse.

If it's gendered based marketing telling you you need to buy something pink with flowers on it,

and that means it's gonna be more expensive, that right there is part of the problem.

Liz: It's time to take our money back. From now on, when I see this kind of price discrimination, I'm speaking up.

And until these companies get the message, I guess I'm gonna smell like a man.