Read the following passage and answer the questions.
Gender-based pricing, also known as “pink tax,” is an upcharge on products traditionally intended for women which have only cosmetic differences from comparable products traditionally intended for men. In other words, it's not actually a tax. It’s an “income-generating scenario for private companies who found a way to make their product look either more directed to or more appropriate for the population and saw that as a moneymaker,” explains Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, a lawyer, vice president for the Brennan School of Justice at NYU School of Law, and co-founder of Period Equity.
Yet pink tax is not a new phenomenon. The issue was delineated more finely in 2015 when the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs released a report about price disparities for 794 comparable products from 91 brands sold throughout the city. The report examined five different industries, such as personal care products or senior/home healthcare products. These encompassed 35 product categories, such as bodywash or shampoo. In every single of those five industries, consumer goods marketed to women and girls cost more. The same was the case in all but five of the 35 product categories. Researchers looked at 106 products in the toys and accessories category and found that, on average, those intended for girls were priced 7 percent higher.
NYC’s report found women faced an average price difference of 13 percent for personal care products among the 122 products compared in the study. And the authors aptly noted that these items, such as shaving gel and deodorant, are the ones purchased most frequently compared with other categories — meaning that the ____________ add up over time. While this is unfair for all those shopping for these products, that 13 percent price increase hits women and girls who come from lower income households even harder. Legislative attempts, however, could correct the pink tax. In 1995, then-Assemblywoman Jackie Speier successfully passed a bill that forbade gender pricing of services, such as haircuts.
Which of the following word aptly fills the blank given in the passage?
Correct Answer :
costs
Solution :
The correct answer is costs.
Step-by-step Explanation:
1. Analyze the Context: The sentence containing the blank reads: "And the authors aptly noted that these items, such as shaving gel and deodorant, are the ones purchased most frequently compared with other categories — meaning that the ____________ add up over time."
2. Identify the Subject Matter: The passage discusses the "pink tax," which refers to gender-based pricing disparities where products marketed to women cost more than comparable products marketed to men. This price difference represents an extra financial expense for the consumer.
3. Evaluate the Cumulative Effect: Since these personal care products (like shaving gel and deodorant) are purchased regularly and frequently, the extra expenses or price differences accumulate over time. In a financial context from the buyer's perspective, these accumulated expenditures are referred to as costs.
4. Eliminate Incorrect Options:
- profits: Although companies make profits, the passage focuses on the financial burden faced by the buyers (women and girls), meaning the expenses (costs) are what accumulate for them.
- equity: Equity refers to fairness or justice. While the price gap represents a lack of equity, it is not something that numerically "adds up" in this context.
- categories: Product classifications do not accumulate or "add up" over time to create a financial burden.
- risks: While there may be economic vulnerabilities, the direct consequence of buying higher-priced goods repeatedly is the accumulation of financial expenses (costs), not risks.
Thus, costs is the most logical and contextually fitting word for the blank.
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