Tackling the Pink Tax: A Call to Congress to End Gender-Based Price Discrimination
![handle is hein.journals/worts42 and id is 71 raw text is: TACKLING THE PINK TAX: A CALL TO
CONGRESS TO END GENDER-BASED PRICE
DISCRIMINATION
Mikayla R. Berliner*
I. INTRODUCTION
Greeted by cheers from the live audience, comedian and talk show host
of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Ellen DeGeneres, addressed her live studio
audience in October 2012 to deliver her daily monologue.' The topic of her
four-minute segment was the release of Bic Pens For Her-pink and purple
pens specifically marketed to women.2 Ellen mockingly noted that the pens
were just like regular pens, except they're pink, so they cost twice as
much.3 In response to the audience's howling laughter, Ellen clarified that
she was not joking or exaggerating; the pens really did cost twice as much
as comparable gender-neutral Bic pens.4
While Ellen mocked the absurdity of Bic Pens For Her, she actually shed
light on a real gender-based price discrimination phenomenon known as the
Pink Tax.5 The Pink Tax is not a legitimate tax imposed by the govern-
ment; rather, it describes a gender-based price discrimination practice that
causes women to pay higher prices than men for identical or substantially
J.D. Candidate, 2021, Seton Hall University School of Law; B.A., Economics and Psychology,
summa cum laude, 2018, Bucknell University. I would like to express my gratitude to my faculty advisor,
Professor Solangel Maldonado, my Comments Editor, Jamie Campisi, and my friends and family for their
invaluable guidance and support. I would also like to thank my high school history teacher, Mr. Laney,
along with the fantastic professors at Bucknell University for sparking and reinforcing my interest in
women's history and gender equality.
The Ellen Show, Bic Pens for Women, YOUTUBE (Oct. 12, 2012),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCyw3prlWhc.
zId.
3 Id.
4 Id.
5 DEMOCRATIC STAFF OF THE JOtNT ECON. COMM., THE PINK TAX 1 (Dec. 2016),
https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/8a42df04-8b6d-4949-b2Ob-6f40a326db9e/the-pink-tax--
-how-gender-based-pricing-hurts-women-s-buying-power.pdf [hereinafter THE PINK TAX].
67](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/worts42&div=5&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Tackling the Pink Tax: A Call to Congress to End Gender-Based Price Discrimination
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