Assignment City Nails Sex-Based Pricing. Assigment
Ethics Sex Based Pricing May 2012
City Nails Sex-Based Pricing
By SUMATHI REDDY And DANNY GOLD
At Kim’s Holly Salon in Crown Heights, manicures for men were $8 while women paid $6.
At Freckle Skin and Hair in Greenpoint, haircuts for men used to be a good $10 cheaper than for women.
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Nail salons are among 138 businesses issued violations so far this year under a little-known New York City law against gender-pricing discrimination.
And until recently, a wax at Vanilla Hair Spa on the Upper East Side was priced differently for men and women.
No more.
The salons are among 138 businesses that have been hit this year for violating a little-known provision that has many pulling their hair: gender-pricing discrimination. The majority of violations so far this year103were issued to salons and barbershops.
“It’s ridiculous. I have some guys who need to come in every two weeks,” said Ania Siemieniaka, the owner of Freckle Skin and Hair, which had to pay $175 for a violation. “If I raise my prices, I’ll lose all my male customers.”
The city’s Department of Consumer Affairs began stepping up enforcement of the law last year, when it issued 580 gender-pricing violations to businesses, more than double the 212 doled out the year before.
“We wanted to really send a strong message to businesses about this kind of illegal pricing, so we did a very focused sweep over the course of the year,” said the department’s commissioner, Jonathan Mintz. “That sweep was largely targeted at salons and barbershops and laundry and dry cleaning.”
Nearly all of the violations were the result of sweeps rather than complaints, said Mr. Mintz, because businesses and industry groups weren’t correcting the practice on their own.
The fines for first-time violations range from $50 to $200, while those for subsequent ones are $100 to $500.
“This is a very basic consumer-protection law and it is also a very basic civil-rights law,” said Mr. Mintz.
“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,” he added. “Reasons are not chromosomes.”
While salons have received the most violations so far this year, in 2011 laundry and dry-cleaning businesses received 272 violations, compared with 269 for salons. In 2010, on the other hand, dry cleaners had only five violations, while “miscellaneous nonfood retail,” which includes salons, had 207 violations.
Salon employees say the law makes no sense.
Ben Duon, the manager at Kim’s Holly Salon, said the business received a $300 violation for charging men $2 more for manicures.
“It cannot be the same. It’s much more work to do the men,” he said. “Most men, they need a good cleaning. They’re contractors, you need to do a lot of work on their nails.”
At Vanilla Hair Spa, manager Oksana, who didn’t want to give her last name, said the charge to wax men used to be $5 more than for women.
“If someone’s waxing a man’s back and a woman’s back, it’s like day and night,” she said. “Of course it takes longer for men. It’s more labor, more product.”
But when it comes to haircuts, salon owners say women should be charged more.
At Foxy Salon in Williamsburg, owner Ria Fuentes said a haircut for a man takes 30 minutes while a women’s cut requires 60.
“Every salon has different prices,” she said, adding that the inspectors are “just going around to all of them.”
Mr. Mintz said the department makes efforts to educate businesses about the law, which went into effect in 1998.
But Leon Kogut of Leon’s Fantasy Cut in Newkirk Plaza in Brooklyn said he’s never been made aware of the law in 21 years of business.
“The guy says this is discrimination,” said Mr. Kogut. “What about insurance? Man’s life insurance costs more than women. Same thing with car insurance.”
Mr. Kogut said the department should give a warning first and then come back and issue a violation if it isn’t corrected. “I’ve never gotten any information” on this, he said. “I didn’t know it existed.”
Write to Sumathi Reddy at [email protected]
A version of this article appeared May 23, 2012, on page A17 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: City Nails Sex-Based Pricing.
Statement: Businesses should be allowed to charge a service fee based on gender.
1. Present arguments (as many as you can think of) in support of the above statement.
2. Present arguments (as many as you can think of) in support of the government fining businesses to ensure that service fees are not based on demographic variables.
3. What is your position?
4. Do you think airlines should charge people based on their weight, since it costs less fuel to fly a lighter person than a heavier person?
5. Think of other situations where demographic variables may be used by businesses to determine the service fee. What will be the issues and when should government interfere through legislation?
WRITE YOUR ANSWER UNDER FOUR CLEARLY MARKED SUBHEADINGS (SEE BELOW) REFERRING TO THE FOUR ABOVE.
1. FOR THE MOTION:
2. AGAINST THE MOTION:
3. MY POSITION:
4. DISCUSSION:
5. FURTHER DISCUSSION:
