--- title: Gender Pay Gap: Melbourne Cafe Raises Awareness With Man Tax description: A cafe in Melbourne is trying to bring attention to Australia's gender pay gap by charging men an 18% premium one week out of every month. canonical: https://time.com/4895297/gender-pay-gap-melbourne-cafe/ author: Rachel Lewis article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-10T15:43:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:56:34.792Z article:section: World og:title: This Cafe Charges 18% 'Man Tax' to Highlight Gender Pay Gap og:description: Australia has had this discrepancy "for decades and decades." og:url: https://time.com/4895297/gender-pay-gap-melbourne-cafe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd485040ce360738b/6988d93a656a3fe4dbbd1395/cafe-man-gender-gap.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Man holding many tea and coffee cups og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Cafe Charges 18% 'Man Tax' to Highlight Gender Pay Gap twitter:description: Australia has had this discrepancy "for decades and decades." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd485040ce360738b/6988d93a656a3fe4dbbd1395/cafe-man-gender-gap.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Cafe Charges an 18% 'Man Tax' to Highlight Gender Pay Gap by [Rachel Lewis](/author/rachel-lewis/) ## Rachel Lewis Aug 10, 2017 3:43 PM CUT  Dimitri Otis - Getty Images by [Rachel Lewis](/author/rachel-lewis/) ## Rachel Lewis Aug 10, 2017 3:43 PM CUT A cafe in Melbourne is trying to bring attention to Australia’s [gender pay gap](http://time.com/4695041/how-to-close-the-gender-pay-gap-in-27-years/ "undefined") by charging men an 18% premium one week out of every month. Alex O’Brien owns the [Handsome Her](https://www.facebook.com/handsomeherbrunswick/?hc%5Fref=ARRwUGAR40GbO7igfY75b0-f0TlCI8mhaH88HuS7iliJAUEuAQ3kuenEHGHf0gm6c8E "undefined") cafe, where she is using the tax to highlight Australia’s 17.7% pay discrepancy between men and women, she told [_Broadsheet_](https://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/city-file/article/handsome-her-and-equal-pay "undefined"). “I do want people to think about it, because we’ve had this (pay discrepancy) for decades and decades and we’re bringing it to the forefront of people’s minds.” The [Australian government reported](https://www.wgea.gov.au/addressing-pay-equity/what-gender-pay-gap "undefined") that the gender pay gap has hovered between 15% and 19% for the past 20 years. O’Brien added that this premium tax was voluntary and the money would be donated to charities and services that help women. And while some social media users have questioned the tax as discrimination, the cafe wrote on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/handsomeherbrunswick/?hc%5Fref=ARRwUGAR40GbO7igfY75b0-f0TlCI8mhaH88HuS7iliJAUEuAQ3kuenEHGHf0gm6c8E "undefined") that the response has largely been positive. It has been “jam-packed with customers showing their support” over the past two days, including men who have traveled across town to “pay the man tax” and thank them for raising awareness around the gap. > [](https://twitter.com/paigecardona/status/893045483949535232) > [](https://twitter.com/MattRob1986/status/893075788580364288) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4895297/gender-pay-gap-melbourne-cafe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4895297/gender-pay-gap-melbourne-cafe/"},"headline":"This Cafe Charges an 18% 'Man Tax' to Highlight Gender Pay Gap","datePublished":"2017-08-10T15:43:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:56:34.792Z","description":"Australia has had this discrepancy \"for decades and decades.\"","url":"https://time.com/4895297/gender-pay-gap-melbourne-cafe/","keywords":["Australia","gender pay gap","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd485040ce360738b/6988d93a656a3fe4dbbd1395/cafe-man-gender-gap.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel Lewis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd485040ce360738b/6988d93a656a3fe4dbbd1395/cafe-man-gender-gap.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Man holding many tea and coffee cups","caption":"Man holding many tea and coffee cups","creditText":"Dimitri Otis - Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/australia/","name":"Australia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4895297/gender-pay-gap-melbourne-cafe/","name":"This Cafe Charges an 18% 'Man Tax' to Highlight Gender Pay Gap"}}]}] ```