Tag Archives: Discrimination

Federal Investigators Probe Google Over Age-Discrimination Complaints

by Ethan Baron, San Jose Mercury News

google and gavel

The lawsuit and investigation are taking place against a tech industry backdrop in which older workers are shuffled out to make way for younger — and cheaper — employees, said UC Davis computer science professor Norman Matloff, who studies age discrimination in the sector. Read More ›

Bill Aims To End ‘Pink Tax’ On Products

by Alia Ismay, San Diego Union-Tribune

Hueso’s Senate Bill 899 is sponsored by the Consumer Federation of California. It states that “no business establishment of any kind whatsoever may discriminate, with respect to the price charged for goods of a substantially similar or like kind, against a person because of the person’s gender.” Products are defined as “substantially similar” when they are the same brand, have the same functional components and share 90 percent of the same materials or ingredients. … The bill does not prohibit price differences based on labor, material or other “gender-neutral” factors. Read More ›

State Senate Looks At Banning Gender-Based Bias In Retail Pricing

by Bob Egelko and Melody Gutierrez, San Francisco Chronicle

Lisa Cuesta, a constituent of [SB 899 author Ben] Hueso’s in Chula Vista and chief operations officer of Casa Familiar, a social services nonprofit … [is] the mother of a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy and says she’s unhappily gotten accustomed to paying $1 to $3 more for toy building blocks or plastic cars and trucks that are pink, purple or yellow — pastels marketed as girls’ colors, she said. “I don’t have the luxury or the time to go into the boys’ section and into the girls’ section” to look for the best deal, Cuesta said in an interview. Read More ›

The Pink Tax: Why Women’s Products Often Cost More

by Susan Johnston Taylor, U.S. News & World Report

According to a study of gendered pricing released by New York City Department of Consumer Affairs last year, shampoo and conditioner marketed to women cost an average of 48 percent more than those marketed to men, while women’s jeans cost 10 percent more than men’s, and girls’ bikes and scooters cost 6 percent more than boys’. Overall, the study found that products marketed to women cost more 42 percent of the time. … Some items marketed to women not only cost more but actually contain less of the product because manufacturers make the product smaller and more feminine-looking. Read More ›