Happy Thursday and welcome to blog number two in the civic issues series. In my last post I addressed the pink tax, which is referred to as any markup up on goods and services that are marketed as being for women, when men are paying less for similar services and products. This however, is not a real tax, but simply an extra cost applied to many things. What is a real tax though is the tampon tax on women’s menstrual products, and it is what I will be addressing in today’s blog post.

Defined as “a compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers’ income and business profits, or added to the cost of some goods, services, and transactions.” by the Oxford Dictionary, taxes are something we see in our everyday lives, common with most purchases, and coming as no surprise when they add on a few dollars to the end of our shopping receipts. What does come as a surprise when you look into it is the way that items necessary to a females (or simply menstruators) life is significantly taxed, and seen as a “luxury” item.  On average, a person who menstruates spends about $1,773 on period products in their lifetime. However a portion of that spending on menstrual products is not actually on the products themselves, but the tax added to them, and could be avoided if governments recognized sanitary pads and tampons as items “necessary for life” instead of continuing to classify them as luxury goods.

The tampon tax is an additional charge on menstrual products, making them have a value-added tax or sales tax added to the initial cost. Many items such as other essential health purchases like prescriptions, some over-the-counter drugs, clothes in some regions, toilet paper, condoms, groceries — and even some much less essential items like golf club memberships and erectile dysfunction pills — are typically tax-exempt.  This picking and choosing of what is seen as “essential” and what is seen as a “luxury” in need of being taxed is a blatant form of gender-based discrimination seen in our every day lives.

This tax exists due to US states and countries exempting menstrual products from being taxed, which then results in reduced public revenue collection. For instance, by cutting the tax on both diapers and tampons, the state of California is estimated to eliminate about $55 million in revenue per year. Another example of this is in New York state, who’s elimination of the tampon tax is estimated to account for an approximate $14 million reduction in annualrevenue. When states eliminate the tampon tax they end up having to increase tax rates on other items to make up for the loss, which is one of the leading causes of the tampon tax still being a prevalent issue modern day.

The average American woman will experience 450 periods in her life, spend an average of $20 on products per periods spanning up to a week, and pay an additional cost between $100 and $225 in tampon taxes over her lifetime. On top of this, the majority of people who menstruate are women, who are already at a financial disadvantage due to the way that the gender pay gap impacts the female population,  allowing women to earn less than men across all regions by an average of 23% (stay tuned for the next civic issues blog, this will be the topic!). Despite it being a prominent issue talked about often in relation to less affluent areas, this tax still remains in effect in wealthy and poor countries and states alike. In terms of the United States, period products are currently still subject to a state sales tax in 22 of the 50 states as of September of 2022, despite many efforts to put a country-wide ban on the tampon tax.

While we see tax and think of just a few cents added on to each purchase, the tampon tax is costing so much more, in both price and overall impact. Globally, 12.8% of women and girls live in poverty and struggleto access the resources to manage their periods to begin with. The tampon tax makes it even more difficult for these people, who can barely even afford their basic needs, much less a necessary product that is advertised as a “luxury”. On top of this, people who depend on a product are usually willing to spend more on it, which companies are aware of and take advantage of, leading to price discrimination that is continually ignored. No matter what, menstruators need these products, and while the taxing of them is not stopping women from purchasing them for the most part, as again they are necessary, it is a cost that adds up, and is particularly apparent in the lives of people who are already struggling with proper resource access. This tax goes so much deeper than simply having or not having the proper products to deal with menstruation comfortably, as in many cases of those living in poverty, the inability to have easy access to period products means that they cannot go to school or work or otherwise participate in daily life. More-so than this, if they do attempt to continue on with life as normal, many experience anxiety and fear of others becoming aware they are menstruating, and are not able to comfortably live for that week.

There are many organizations who’s solepurposes are to fight for equality in regards to menstrual products. An example of this is the organization Period Equity, who are a national law and policy advocacy group dedicated to ensuring accessible, affordable, and safe menstrual products. They have been working for many years to remove the tampon tax in the 22 states where it still remains in effect. In June of 2019, they introduced a collaboration with the women-led period and sexual wellness brand LOLA, for a coordinated legal, advocacy, and public engagement campaign called, “Tax Free. Period”. Together, these two groups worked to raise awareness for the unconstitutional state laws in place around the country, and while they were aiming to ensure all period products tax-free by Tax Day 2021, have unfortunately not gotten to that point quite yet. However, when they began their efforts there were still 30 states that remained taxing menstrual products, and since then the number has decreased. This decrease, while not nearly significant enough, shows hope for a world where all menstruators will have equal and fair access to all products necessary for a clean, safe, and comfortable period. Until then, organizations like Period Equity will continue working in the hopes that one day they won’t need to.

Text Sources: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/10/08/period-action-day-tampon-tax-poverty/8194651001/

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/tampon-tax-explained-definition-facts-statistics/

https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/spending/articles/the-pink-tax-how-inflation-impacts-the-period-product-industry#:~:text=The%20average%20person%20who%20menstruates,estimated%20%249%2C000%20over%20a%20lifetime.

https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/a29490059/tampon-tax-state-guide/

Image Sources: https://shscedarpost.com/4643/opinion/tackling-the-tampon-tax/

https://www.thedailybeast.com/womens-equality-starts-with-ending-the-tampon-tax

https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/03/pf/taxes/tampon-tax-lawsuit-new-york/