Episode summary
The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · 14 min · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec, Norah Mulinda · Guests: Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman
Summary
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman argues that the “double tax” is the compounded cost of racism and sexism, beyond the familiar pink tax. She says it shows up in everyday logistics and prices: women of color may have to travel farther for basic products, pay more for care, and absorb costs that are not obvious on a receipt but add up over time.
She ties those individual burdens to broader economic consequences. In her view, the data show higher unemployment for Black women and spillover effects for women and mothers more broadly, so the problem does not stay confined to one group. Her book uses a mix of empirical research, qualitative evidence, and anecdotes to show how barriers in housing, caregiving, child care, and retirement shape a woman’s entire life cycle.
Opoku-Agyeman says the solution has to be multi-pronged: policy, community action, and individual behavior all matter. She points to child care, housing subsidies, and broader access to products and services as practical ways to reduce the burden, while urging listeners to empathize with neighbors and push local businesses and communities to fill the gaps.
Key takeaways
- Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman defines the double tax as the compounded cost of racism and sexism, with the pink tax only one piece of it.
- She says Black women are facing higher unemployment rates, and the effects are already spilling over to women and mothers more broadly.
- Opoku-Agyeman argues child care, housing, and retirement are linked parts of one lifetime cost structure, not separate issues.
- She says the solution requires policy, communities, and individual actions together, not a single silver bullet.
- She recommends practical local action, including asking stores for missing products and organizing childcare support with other parents.
Notable quotes
“the double tax is essentially the pink tax and then some, right? So there are women who experience taxes on top of the pink tax”
“the double tax, right, which by the way is the compounded cost of racism and sexism”
“what's actually happening with them is starting to be reflected in other groups, women more broadly and mothers”
“on average, $40,000, that's not including health insurance”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenc on Bloomberg Radio. — Anna Gift Puku Aiman has receipts and she's used them to write a book. She's the author of the double tax, how women of color are overcharged and underpaid. She's an author. She's an economist. She's a researcher at Harvard's Kennedy School. She joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio. Also with us is Nora Melinda. She's Bloomberg television markets correspondent. She joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio as well. Welcome. Congratulations on the book.
Gosh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Such an honor. — You know, I I I think a lot of us are familiar, especially in recent years, with the so-called pink tax. The idea that women pay more for for certain items. And like we've talked about this a lot.
Amen. Right. Exactly.
What is the double tax? So the double tax is essentially the pink tax and then some, right? So there are women who experience taxes on top of the pink tax.
You're not just worried about finding the right beauty products in the store, but sometimes when you go to the store, those beauty products might not even exist. So you have to travel further for those products. So I'll give you an example.
Um I use hair products that essentially are sold in stores in the Cambridge area that are about 45 minutes away from my house. So that additional tax is me having to drive 45 minutes on top of getting to the store and maybe or maybe not seeing the products that are on those shelves. Why?
Why do you think this happens in society?
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- double tax
- women of color pay gap
- racism and sexism
- job opportunity disparities
- housing and childcare costs
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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