The Timetax: How many hours of your life does a diaper cost?
Measuring inequality in the most precious currency — time.
A father’s impossible choice
As I change my eight-month-old daughter’s diaper in our London flat, my phone pings with yet another message from the family group chat debating whether we should return to Nepal.
“Stay in the UK for your child’s future,” argues my uncle. “Come home — family is everything,” pleads my mother-in-law.
Last month, I ran the numbers. They ended the debate: In London, a jumbo pack of Pampers diapers costs me 1.04 hours of work at minimum wage. In Kathmandu, the same pack costs 23.25 hours of work at minimum wage.
That’s not just a price gap. That’s a life gap — dozens of sunrises I’d miss with my daughter just to keep her clean.
Brutal arithmetic
We often talk about affordability in terms of currency. But what if we measured it in time?
Here’s what it costs in work hours at average wages to afford the basics in Nepal, Kenya and the UK:
In the table above, the cost of several basic goods is compared across three different countries: Nepal, Kenya, and the UK, with their respective average hourly wages of $0.63, $1.34, and $14.19. The table shows how many hours a person would need to work to afford one of each item.
Diapers (pack): It takes a person in Nepal 23.25 hours, in Kenya 10.58 hours, and in the UK 1.04 hours to afford a pack of diapers.
Chicken (1kg): A person must work 4.17 hours in Nepal, 3.06 hours in Kenya, and 0.33 hours in the UK to afford 1 kilogram of chicken.
1GB Data: To purchase 1 gigabyte of data, a person in Nepal must work for 0.47 hours, in Kenya for 1.44 hours, and in the UK for 0.12 hours.
Electricity (kWh): The required work hours for 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity are 0.08 hours in Nepal, 0.23 hours in Kenya, and 0.02 hours in the UK.
Average wage sources:
Nepal: World Bank and ILO data, based on average monthly income divided by average working hours.
Kenya: 2024 minimum wage data from the Kenya Wage Council and World Bank, adjusted to an hourly rate.
UK: UK Government National Minimum Wage 2024 for adults 21+.
A mother's heartbreaking calculus
My wife’s cousin in Kathmandu, mother to an 11-month-old, once confessed: “My husband works at a bank. Together, we earn around $263/month. After rent and rice, we can’t afford diapers. I’m applying for a job in Saudi Arabia — not for dreams, but because I can’t watch my son sit in soiled diapers.”
Her voice cracked as she admitted she might miss his first steps. This isn’t migration by choice — it’s surrender to a rigged system.
What makes a country rich?
When you measure basics by hours of life spent earning them, instead of money, some things are hard to unsee:
- The average Kenyan pays 26% of their hourly wage per unit of electricity, versus 0.13% in the UK.
- Nepal’s 28-minute-per-GB mobile data cost is a hidden toll of the country’s monopoly and weak infrastructure.
- In Kathmandu, it takes three 8-hour workdays to afford a single pack of diapers.
Six systemic failures driving Timetax inequities
1. Wage apartheid: The hourly wage in the UK ($14.19) versus Nepal ($0.63) is just one example — the world is not a meritocracy, but a geographic lottery.
2. Global prices, local wages: Multinationals price diapers similarly worldwide, even though earning power varies wildly.
3. Import penalties: Nepal’s 30% tariff on diapers adds six extra labour hours to each pack.
4. Flat pricing, unequal Impact: Basics like electricity cost nearly the same across the world, but absorb many more work hours in poorer countries.
5. Broken markets: In Kenya, Safaricom’s market dominance means 1GB of data costs 1.5 hours of work.
6. Inflation’s bite: Nepal’s 7% inflation rate last year, per the World Bank, meant more time spent earning the same goods.
Timetax as a more impactful GDP alternative
GDP celebrates when more diapers are sold.
The Timetax asks: At what human cost?
Three reforms could make a big difference :
UN Timetax reports: Alongside GDP and inflation figures, countries and agencies should track how many hours it takes to afford the basics. This index would highlight inequality in human time, not just income.
Time-conditioned aid: The IMF, World Bank and bilateral development agencies should move beyond tariff reform. They must invest in local innovation, supporting small manufacturers and cooperatives in low-income countries to produce diapers and other basic goods at affordable costs using locally available materials. Whether through grants, concessional loans or capacity-building aid, the goal should be to reduce the Timetax through sustainable, decentralised production—building dignity, not dependence.
National time goals: Countries should aim to cut the Timetax for their citizens, not only for food, energy and hygiene, but also for quality healthcare, education and housing.
Every policymaker should be asked: “How many hours does it take for a citizen to afford a healthy life?” When time spent replaces income earned as a development benchmark, political priorities begin to shift.
These ideas aren’t radical. The OECD already measures “time poverty,” while South Africa calculates its living wage in work hours.
A father's plea
I want to raise my daughter where she hears her grandmother’s lullabies, not just where my salary stretches the furthest.
But until an hour’s work in Kathmandu buys what it does in London, “coming home” means choosing between family and a dignified life.
We need a new development metric. One that counts time, not just income. One that values dignity, not just demands.
Because if we keep measuring success in GDP alone, we’ll keep perpetuating a world where clean diapers come at the cost of a parent’s presence in a child’s life.
Sources: Pampers Prices: ePharmacy Nepal, Tesco UK, Jumia Kenya (May 2025) Wages: World Bank Wage Indicators, National Minimum Wage Reports (2024–2025) Electricity: GlobalPetrolPrices.com (2025) Mobile Data: Cable.co.uk (2024 Global Mobile Data Pricing) Chicken Prices: UK ONS, Nepal Food Bulletin, Numbeo (2025)