Pads and Tampons are NOT Luxury Products!
Final signature count: 1,400
1,400 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Hunger Site
Tell Mississippi and Alabama that feminine hygiene products should not be taxed!
In the United States, food, medical supplies, and other necessities, are often exempt from state sales tax. Many items that don’t seem quite “necessary” fall into this tax-free category, including items like sunscreen, Rogaine, and anti-dandruff shampoo.
But in many states, feminine hygiene products are taxed and therefore seen as non-essential, luxury items.
Women know this is not the case. Menstruation is a fact of life for most women, and products like pads, tampons, and menstrual cups are essential to protecting health and sanitation. They are not optional, so why aren’t they exempt from tax?
President Obama said in the article “So Tampons Are Taxed, But Rogaine Isnt? What You Need to Know About the Recent “Tampon Tax” Lawsuit” by Vogue: “I have no idea why states would tax these as luxury items. I suspect its because men were making the laws when those taxes were passed.”
Adding insult to injury is the fact that due to the wage gap, women make approximately 79 cents for every dollar a male colleague earns for the same work. Not only are women being taxed for essential hygiene products, they have less money to spend than their male counterparts.
While some states have ended this unfair taxation of women, still many other persist. Tell the two states tied for being worst for women in the United States according to statusofwomendata.org, Mississippi and Alabama, that their discriminatory taxation must end!