Melb Cafe Charges 18% ‘Man Tax’ To Close Wage Gap & It’s Dividing People

A Brunswick cafe called Handsome Her opened a few days ago and pretty much immediately caused a massive social media frenzy.

Why? Because they displayed this sign out the front:

Would LOVE everyones thoughts on this. My friends cafe in #Brunswick, Handsom Her – is for women by women AND an has a 18% gender tax! pic.twitter.com/tVSX3PO4q8

— Paige Cardona (@paigecardona) August 3, 2017

It reads:

Handsome Her is a space for women, by women.

House Rules:

Rule #1: women have priority seating.
Rule #2: men will be charged an 18% premium to reflect the gender pay gap (2016) which is donated to a women’s service.
Rule #3: respect goes both ways.

Unsurprisingly, many people had a lot of feelings about these rules – particularly the second one.

Highlighting wage gap in a very tangible wayand creating spaces for and by women ???? As long as it's trans inclusive it sounds great ❤️

— Margot Fink (@margot_fink) August 3, 2017

Not a fan. Whilst appreciate highlighting the issue of pay, creating an us and them is divisive. Flip this, and Twitter is in flames.

— Pauloncè (@PJS_84) August 3, 2017

Divisive – surely they can understand that ostracising one sector of the community based on gender is not moving toward equality!

— General Soreness (@GenSorenessSC) August 3, 2017

love it! Spaces for ladies is always great and highlighting the pay gap like this is harder for people to ignore.

— Fiona Cannon (@FiCan) August 3, 2017

Discrimination is illegal, regardless of the spurious intent. Do they hire male staff or do they discriminate there too?

— Stui Magpie (@StuiMagpie) August 3, 2017

I love it. Especially if it creates an environment where women feel safe

— Erin Riley (@erinrileyau) August 3, 2017

As a man – no problem with it at all. No reason women shouldn't have their own spaces and be able to dictate what the rules are in them.

— Josh Elliott (@JoshElliott_29) August 3, 2017

Basically, some people reckon it’s a great way to tangibly demonstrate the gender inequality that continues to affect Australian society; some think it’s a bad, hypocritical move that’s only going to alienate blokes.

Interestingly, everyone seems to be assuming that the rules as outlined in chalk are always going to be strictly enforced.

However, co-owner Alex O’Brien said that the most controversial rule, that eyebrow-raising gender surcharge, would only be on the board one week per month – and people didn’t even have to pay it if they didn’t want to:

“If men don’t want to pay it, we’re not going to kick them out the door. It’s just an opportunity to do some good.”

She told Seven News that no-one had refused to pay so far, though, and in a Facebook post said that blokes had even been coming from across town just to fork out a little extra for a cup of coffee.

The cafe currently has more than 4,000 likes on Facebook, and it appears that their website has crashed under the weight of unexpected traffic. So if this whole thing is just a publicity stunt, the owners can consider it a roaring success.

But bearing in mind that all those non-mandatory 18% tips are going directly to help women in need – this month, according to News.com.au, they’re donating to Elizabeth Morgan House Aboriginal Women’s Services – it’s hard to see what all the fuss is about, really.