Consumer Alert: Study shows female New Yorkers pay more for car insurance
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ROCHESTER, N.Y. – You’ve heard of the pink tax, right? It’s when women are charged more for the same product or service. Well, it seems the pink tax has hit the car insurance industry as well. And it’s especially onerous in the state of New York. Here, women pay on average $208 more for car insurance. The study was done by QuoteWizaard, an insurance comparison site. New York has the third highest price gap in the country, exceeded only by Florida and Alaska.
But it doesn’t start out that way. Young male drivers pay far more for car insurance than young women. Young men pay on average a thousand dollars more because the data shows their crash risk is higher. A CDC study showed that the rate of fatal car accidents for male drivers between 16 and 19 is twice that of female drivers the same age.
But car insurance rates for men decrease dramatically by age 25. And by age 35, women are charged more than men. That’s true in 31 states, including New York. Here, men pay $3,851 for car coverage. Compare that to women who pay $4,059 for car coverage. That’s $208 more than men, which flies in the face of data that shows overall, women have safer driving records than men. The authors of the study could find no consistent reason or risk factor that justified charging women more.
There are seven states that have laws on the books making it illegal to consider gender when calculating auto insurance rates. They are California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Instead those states want insurers to prioritize a driver’s safety record and experience when setting rates. When making the change in 2019, the California insurance commissioner said he wanted insurers to base rates on factors within a driver’s control.
This study really highlights the importance of our evaluating our insurance coverage annually. We, as consumers, do have some power – the ability to make insurers compete for our business.
You've heard of the pink tax, right? It's when women are charged more for the same product or service. Well, it seems the pink tax has hit the car insurance industry as well. And it’s especially onerous in the state of New York. Here, women pay on average $208 more for car insurance. The study was done by QuoteWizaard, an insurance comparison site. New York has the third highest price gap in the country, exceeded only by Florida and Alaska.
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