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FYI: Charging Different Prices For Men And Women Is Illegal
By
Garth Johnston
Published May 23, 2012
Modified May 23, 2012
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By
Garth Johnston
Published May 23, 2012
Modified May 23, 2012
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Next time you go to get your hair did, or your nails trimmed or just to drop off some dry cleaning take a look at the prices listed. Is your salon or dry cleaner charging more to work on customers of one gender than the other? You might want to give them a heads up that not only is that illegal, but the city is starting crack down on the practice. Because really, taking this to an extreme, why should it cost more to jazz up the area above one's johnson than the area above one's vajayjay?
Last year the city's Department of Consumer Affairs began stepping up their enforcement of a little known law that makes gender-based pricing illegal. So far this year they've hit 138 businesses for the very common practice, mostly found just by walking around looking for offenders. Last year they handed out 580 violations related to pricing, more than double the 212 doled out the year before. Hardest hit by the tickets (which start at $50 and then can get as expensive as $500) have been salons, whose owners are not amused.
"It's ridiculous. I have some guys who need to come in every two weeks," Ania Siemieniaka, the owner of Freckle Skin and Hair, complained of her $175 for a violation. "If I raise my prices, I'll lose all my male customers."
The thing is, though, at least according to DCA commissioner Jonathan Mintz it really isn't that complicated: "This is a very basic consumer-protection law and it is also a very basic civil-rights law," he said. "I think there are completely legitimate reasons to charge different prices for different services and that one should be specific for what those reasons are. Reasons are not chromosomes."
So, if we get this right, a simple solution could be instead of charging men less for their cuts, hair salons can simply charge less for those looking for "easy" haircuts (cause a ladie's pixie cut is still way more complicated than your average buzz). Or, in the case nail salons, those with, uh, bigger fingernails?
But really its the more obscure gender-priced stuff we're interested in. For instance, we've reached out to the DCA and Bliss Spa to find out if that salon's practice of charging $5 more for men to get vajeweled than for women is legal—and have yet to hear back. We certainly can't think of a good reason for it to cost more for a man to look like an idiot.
Tagged
dca
department of consumer affairs
gender based pricing
hair
salons
Garth Johnston
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