NY Region

City Nails Sex-Based Pricing

By Sumathi Reddy And Danny Gold
May 23, 2012
Nail salons are among 138 businesses issued violations so far this year under a little-known
New York City law against gender-pricing discrimination.

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.
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 littleknown 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 drycleaning 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."