What’s ‘pink tax’ Biocon chief complained about?

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the founder and executive chairperson of Indian Biopharmaceutical Company Biocon, posted a video on X to protest discriminatory pricing for products used preferably by women.

Mazumdar-Shaw wrote, “Pink Tax! A shameful gender bias that women must respond to by shunning such products.”
What is ‘pink tax’?

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), consumer products targeted and advertised to women are sometimes more expensive than comparable products marketed to men.This disparity is referred to as a pink tax.

WEF says gender-based price disparities are prevalent in several sectors, but one of the most visible is personal care products. These include, for example, soaps, lotions, razor blades and deodorants that are marketed specifically to either women or men.

How, What’s in the video?
The video shows a social media influencer, who goes by the name of “Dr Sanjay Arora PhD”, discussing the price disparity for similar products.

He says a lip balm is priced at Rs 250 for women compared to Rs 165 for men, a plain razor is priced 10% higher for women than men and a T-shirt 50% higher for the fairer gender.

Dr Arora says women despite getting paid 14.8% less in wages for the same job a man does are paying higher prices for the same products due to “pink tax”.

Is it only in India?
WEF cites an American government study and another investigation in the UK to make its point.

In the US, the analysis of 800 gender-specific products from nearly 100 brands showed that on average, personal care products targeted to women were 13% more expensive than similar men’s products.

Another US study found that dry cleaning prices for women’s dress shirts were upwards of 90% more expensive than for men’s shirts.

And, in the UK, an analysis found that women’s deodorant was on average 8.9% more expensive than men’s. Women’s facial moisturiser was 34.28% more expensive.