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Pink or Blue? German Watchdog Says Women Pay for Goods, Services More Than Men

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A woman in a hair salon - Sputnik International
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Gender price gaps are particularly evident with hairdressers and dry-cleaners, as well as in ordinary supermarkets and stores.

Many services and goods in Germany are more expensive for women than men, a study by the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency said.

The authors of the research, namely "Gender-related price differentiation in Germany," evaluated 1,682 products and 381 services provided for men or women and came to a conclusion that female customers generally pay more than their male counterparts in 30 percent of the examined cases.

According to the study, the differences are most significant with hairdressers and dry-cleaners. For short hairstyles women pay on average 12.50 euros more than men, while the cleaning of women's blouses costs an average of 1.80 euros more than that of men's shirts.

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Among hairdressers, the different pricing is particularly widespread. Eighty-nine percent of the hairdressing salons surveyed use so-called "gender pricing," justifying it by more time and effort spent on women's haircuts.

"If a person is charged more purely based on their gender, then in principle this violates the law against discrimination," said Christine Lueders, the head of Germany's federal anti-discrimination agency (ADS), cited by local.de.

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According to Lueders, services should be offered according to a specific type of service and not be related to a person's gender.

"We recommend in particular that dry-cleaners and hairdressers price their options according to the specific type of service provided and not by gender," she added, citing Austria with its "gender-neutral price lists" as an example.

Pink Costs More Than Blue

The same logic of gender price gaps applies to various everyday products, the research revealed.

In particular, the study showed that women soemtimes have to pay more for products that are identical with those offered to men.

One example of the so-called "pink tax" is that a pack of pink razor blades for women were sold for 4.49 euros in supermarkets, while the exact same blades for men, but in blue, were sold for 3.89 euros.

Based on its research, the ADS called for closer monitoring of gender-related price differences in the future and said consumers should be informed of the existing gaps.

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