State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, is reviving an attempt to eliminate pricing discrimination on the basis of gender — charging women more than what men pay on similar products.

According to Jackson’s office, California women earn 88 cents on every dollar a man earns. Crunch the calculator, and women’s salaries lag behind men’s by more than $7,000 a year.
Meanwhile, past studies estimate that California women pay sometimes pay more money for than men for the same products.
In 1995, when the state adopted the Gender Tax Repeal Act, a study estimated California women paid $1,351 more than man every year for similar goods and services. That law prohibited businesses from charging different prices for similar services on the basis of gender. It focused on salons, tailors and dry cleaners.
Jackson’s bill would go further, banning gender-based pricing for consumer products. …