User:Jennysaensouk/Pink tax

International Prevalence
Other countries where the pink tax has been investigated include France, Germany, the UK, Australia, and Italy. In the UK, women and girls were being charged on average 37 percent more for toys, cosmetics and clothes than their male counterparts. VAT is commonly known as European value-added tax that is added to a wide distribution of goods to the countries within the European Union. The rate of the VAT is currently at 20%, excluding some items such as, goods for the disables, educational items, medical supplies, and children's clothes. Within this list of things, women's sanitary products is not exempt from the VAT, since they are not deemed "necessary". Prior to 2021, the tax on sanitary products was at the standard rate of 20 percent, but as of recent the UK Government and Ireland put a zero-rate on items including sanitary towels, sanitary pads, panty liners, and tampons. Italy charges 22 percent on sanitary products, with Germany at 19 percent and France at 5.5 percent. In Singapore, a check by The Sunday Times on ten companies found that women pay more for some products and services, like dry cleaning and razors, offered by about half of these companies. Additionally, women in Singapore have to pay more premiums for Careshield Life, a national long-term care insurance scheme introduced by the government.

Monica Lennon[edit]
In Scotland Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament Monica Lennon campaigned to end period poverty since 2016. She introduced a Bill for an Act of the Scottish Parliament, the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill to make provision for free period products for anyone who needs them in 2019.

Christine Jardine[edit]
An Early Day Motion directly citing the Pink tax was raised in the UK parliament by Scottish Liberal Democrat Christine Jardine in 2020 to highlight MPs concerns that women and girls pay more for basic products (including toiletries, clothes, and haircuts) than men do. Jardine proposed The Gender-Based Pricing (Prohibition) Bill. Jardine highlights that in the UK "women on average pay £200 more annually than men for the same every-day consumer goods and services" and that in some cases the only difference is the color of the item.

US Legislation
Bill AB 1287