HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES             H.R. NO.55            
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________


                     HOUSE  RESOLUTION

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS TO
   CONDUCT A STUDY AND TO TAKE ACTION TO PROHIBIT
   DISCRIMINATORY PRICING PRACTICES IN THE PROVISION OF
   SERVICES.



 1       WHEREAS, every person should be charged the same price for
 2   the same service, or surcharged equally for an identical extra
 3   service, irrespective of gender; and
 4   
 5       WHEREAS, existing laws prohibit any business from
 6   discriminating against any person based on gender; and
 7   
 8       WHEREAS, charging different prices for services or goods
 9   that are the same or similar in nature based on a consumer's
10   gender constitutes a form of discrimination; and
11   
12       WHEREAS, disparate pricing for services or goods that are
13   the same or similar in nature most often affects women; and
14   
15       WHEREAS, while prices for services should only vary if a
16   service takes longer or is more difficult to provide, women are
17   often charged more for services or goods by certain types of
18   businesses, such as salons, dry cleaners, clothing alterations,
19   based on gender stereotypes, not actual labor costs; and
20   
21       WHEREAS, a 1996 Council survey in New York City provided
22   strong evidence that gender-based price discrimination existed
23   in haircutting, dry cleaning, and clothing alterations, finding
24   that:
25   
26       (1)  Out of 199 haircutters surveyed, 48 percent charged
27            women more than men for a basic haircut, making the
28            average price of a woman's haircut 19 percent more
29            than a man's haircut; 
30   
31       (2)  Women paid, on average, 190 percent more than men for
32            having the waist of a pair of suit pants taken in one
33            inch at twenty-four major clothing retailers surveyed;
34            and
35   

 
Page 2                                                     
                                  H.R. NO.55            
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1       (3)  Women paid, on average, 13.5 percent more than men to
 2            have shirts dry cleaned;
 3   
 4   and
 5   
 6       WHEREAS, a 1997 investigation conducted by the
 7   Massachusetts' Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG) found
 8   that:
 9   
10       (1)  88 percent of the dry cleaners surveyed charge women
11            more than men to dry clean and/or launder a cotton
12            shirt;
13   
14       (2)  Of the dry cleaners that were found to discriminate in
15            the survey, women were charged an average of 53
16            percent more than men to have a shirt laundered, and
17            47 percent more to have a shirt dry cleaned, and that
18            in some cases, women were charged 3 times the price
19            men were charged for the same service;
20   
21       (3)  56 percent of the hair salons surveyed charged women
22            an average of 31 percent more for a basic shampoo,
23            hair cut, and blow dry then men;
24   
25       (4)  70 percent of the hair salons that were found to
26            charge different prices defended their gender
27            discrimination even after the surveyer explained that
28            a man's hair cut could be more complicated than a
29            woman's haircut; and
30   
31       (5)  Only 33 percent of retailers surveyed posted or made
32            available their prices in writing;
33   
34   and
35   
36       WHEREAS, a 1991 Massachusetts Attorney General's Report
37   proved that the common excuses used by dry cleaners for illegal
38   gender-based pricing practices were invalid, demonstrating, for
39   example:
40   
41       (1)  When dry cleaners claimed that women's shirts required
42            hand pressing because they did not fit the standard
43            body presses used for shirts, their claim was proven
44            untrue when investigators brought women's shirts as

 
 
 
Page 3                                                     
                                  H.R. NO.55            
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1            small as an untapered size six to ordinary commercial
 2            launderers, who pressed them in the same way the
 3            launderers press men's shirts, without extra labor;
 4            and
 5   
 6       (2)  When dry cleaners claimed that women's blouses could
 7            not be pressed on a standard press because any
 8            ornamentation on the shirt precluded their use,
 9            investigators found shirts as fancy as men's pleated
10            tuxedo shirts were pressed on a standard body press;
11   
12   and 
13   
14       WHEREAS, while not every business uses discriminatory
15   pricing practices, gender pricing continues to exist and costs
16   women extra money every year; and 
17   
18       WHEREAS, according to the U.S. Department of  Labor, Bureau
19   of Labor Statistics, full-time women workers in Hawaii make
20   approximately 82.4 cents for every dollar earned by men
21   workers, thus causing women to suffer the double indignity of
22   both earning less at work and paying more for services or goods
23   that are the same or similar in nature to services or goods
24   provided to men; now, therefore,
25   
26       BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the
27   Twentieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session
28   of 1999, that the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
29   (DCCA), in conjunction with the Legislative Reference Bureau
30   (LRB), is requested to conduct a study regarding discriminatory
31   pricing practices by persons, partnerships, firms,
32   corporations, or other entities engaged in business within the
33   State, and to take action to prohibit discriminatory pricing
34   practices in the provision of services to consumers based on
35   race, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, disability,
36   marital status, sexual orientation, or alienage or citizenship
37   status of such consumers; and 
38   
39       BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, for purposes of its study,
40   DCCA shall not consider as discriminatory:
41   
42       (1)  Price differences based on the amount of time,
43            difficulty, or cost of providing services as
44            discriminatory; and
45   

 
 
Page 4                                                     
                                  H.R. NO.55            
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1       (2)  Laws related to health and safety or insurance;
 2   
 3   and
 4   
 5       BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that DCCA is requested to report on
 6   its findings and actions it has taken to prohibit
 7   discriminatory pricing practices to the Legislature no later
 8   than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session
 9   of 2000; and
10   
11       BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
12   Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the Director of
13   DCCA, the Director of LRB, the Attorney General, and the Hawaii
14   Chamber of Commerce.
15 
16 
17 
18                         OFFERED BY:  ____________________________