New York And Chicago Just Ditched The Tampon Tax

Celebrate good times, c’mon!

It’s a good day for equality when two US states finally abolish the irrational ‘nonessential item tax’ on tampons, sanitary pads and other feminine-hygiene products we wish we didn’t have to buy – and Britain is planning to do the same.

The state assembly of New York and the city council of Chicago decided to ban the 1.25 per cent sales tax on menstrual products after it was put to a vote on Wednesday, thereby joining Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Minnesota in their decision.

Only one day later, British chancellor George Osborne announced Britain is on the verge of abolishing the five per cent luxury goods tax on tampons, expecting a final decision to be made next week. It’s a welcome move by the British government, considering the fact women in the UK pay up to 37 per cent more for female-targeted products than men do for male-targeted ones. 

What a shame it took decades for these politicians to understand women don’t choose to bleed uncontrollably from their vaginas every month and don’t actually want to buy ‘luxury’ products in the form of pressed cotton. Many women took to the streets protesting against the irrational tax last year; it seems their pleas were finally heard.

This is such exciting news, we feel like celebrating by throwing a party with all the money we’ll save without the tampon tax.

But this is about more than cash, it’s about discrimination. Just for fun though, let’s quickly do the math: if women spend about $10 each month on sanitary products, that’s $120 a year, for an average of 40 years, which is a whopping $4800 – that kinda dough can get us things that should actually fall under the ‘luxury goods’ category.

It really makes us wonder how this tax came about in the first place, but then we remember it’s because men were in charge. Let’s hope these latest developments will put the pressure on even more states and countries so we can end this tax injustice once and for all.

Comment: Which state would you like to see ban tampon tax?