20 Hours for a TV, But What About Rent? The Truth Behind "How Many Minutes of Work to Buy It" Reflects Wealth

"Milk has gone up from 200 yen to 230 yen," "Items that used to be in the 100 yen range are now nearly 300 yen."

When discussing rising prices, we often compare the price tags of products to the past. However, what's truly important is not the price itself, but how many minutes or hours of work are required to purchase that item.

The "purchasing power per minute of wages," continuously calculated by the German economic research institute, the Cologne Institute for Economic Research, is an indicator that quantifies this concept. It compares the average take-home pay of a typical worker with the average price of goods to determine the labor time needed for purchase.

Viewed through this indicator, life in Germany appears to have become remarkably affluent since the 1960s.

However, in response to an article by the German media introducing these figures, there was strong backlash on social media, not only with evaluations like "Indeed, things have become cheaper," but also with questions like "What about rent?" and "I don't feel it when calculated with average wages."

This discussion is not irrelevant to Japan, where wages have long stagnated and concerns about rising prices are growing.

In 1960, It Took About Two Months to Buy a TV

Assuming an average German worker in 2025 uses their take-home pay to purchase standard goods, it would take about 2 minutes of work to buy a postage stamp or a bottle of beer, and about 3 minutes for a liter of milk or a kilogram of sugar.

A loaf of bread would take about 10 minutes, the monthly public broadcasting fee about 43 minutes, and a movie ticket about 23 minutes. A women's dress or suit would take about 3 hours, a washing machine about 15 hours, and a standard wardrobe about 4 days of labor.

Among these, the change in televisions is dramatic.

In 1960, the average worker in West Germany needed to work 346 hours and 45 minutes to buy a television. Assuming an 8-hour workday, this equates to about 43 days, or nearly two months with a 5-day workweek.

By 1991, this had shortened to about 78 hours, and by 2025, it was 19 hours and 30 minutes. Nowadays, one could work for about half a week to purchase a 55-inch, 4K, QLED, smart TV model.

The same applies to washing machines. The required labor time decreased from about 221 hours in 1960 to 53 hours in 1991, and to 15 hours in 2025.

This is not simply because wages have increased.

For televisions and washing machines, automation of production processes, standardization of parts, international division of labor, mass production, and logistics efficiency have advanced. While product performance has improved, prices have not risen as much as wages. For televisions, the standard product price in 1991 was approximately 803 euros after conversion, but the comparison model for 2025 is considered to be 499 euros.

The average net hourly wage in Germany rose from 10.21 euros in 1991 to 25.56 euros in 2025. While wages increased by about 2.5 times, television prices actually decreased, significantly reducing the labor time required.

Time to Buy 32 Items Reduced from "32 Days" to "14 Days"

If one were to purchase all 32 surveyed products and services, it would have required about 32 days of labor in West Germany in 1991.

By 2025, this has decreased to about 14 days.

Despite rising prices, why has the time required for purchase decreased? The answer is that, in the long term, the rate of wage increase has outpaced the rate of price increases for many products.

This perspective has a significant advantage.

For example, if the price of bread rises from 100 yen to 200 yen, it feels like a "doubling." However, if during that time the hourly wage rises from 800 yen to 2,000 yen, the labor time to buy bread shortens from 7 minutes and 30 seconds to 6 minutes.

While the price tag shows an increase, in terms of labor time, it has become easier to buy.

The "labor time price" intuitively shows long-term changes in living standards that are hard to see with just the inflation rate.

Not All Products Have Become Easier to Buy

However, purchasing power has not uniformly increased.

In Germany, the labor time required to purchase 1 kilogram of beef has increased from about 32 minutes in 1991 to about 35 minutes in 2025. In 2019, it was about 28 minutes, making it a product whose burden has noticeably increased in recent years.

Newspaper subscription fees have also risen. The labor time required to purchase a monthly newspaper has increased from about 1 hour and 39 minutes in 1960 to about 2 hours and 4 minutes today.

Services involving direct human labor, such as beauty, dining, repairs, and caregiving, also tend to resist price decreases.

In a television factory, mechanization can increase the number of units produced per hour. However, it's difficult to reduce the time it takes for a hairdresser to cut one person's hair to one-tenth. In caregiving, childcare, education, and healthcare, the time spent face-to-face with people cannot be endlessly shortened.

Therefore, industrial products that benefit greatly from technological advances tend to become cheaper, while services with a high proportion of labor costs tend to become more expensive.

Modern consumers can be described as "strong in buying TVs and clothing, but weak in buying people's time."

Voices on Social Media Questioning "Where Did Rent Go?"

On a German-speaking bulletin board-style social media platform where this article was shared, posts questioning what was not included in the calculations stood out more than reactions simply accepting the numbers.

Questions about housing costs were particularly common.

Reactions included sentiments like "I only buy a TV once every few years, but I pay rent every month," "Even if I can buy a new wardrobe with 4 days of work, a significant portion of my monthly income disappears on rent before that," and "I want to see the labor time required for housing or home acquisition."

This criticism carries important meaning.

Televisions, washing machines, and clothing can relatively easily have their purchase delayed or price range changed. If they don't break, you can do without buying them, and you can choose used items.

However, rent, utilities, food expenses, insurance premiums, and transportation costs occur monthly. Housing costs, in particular, are significant and not easily reduced.

Even if household appliances bought once a year become significantly cheaper, if monthly fixed costs increase, the overall household budget remains tight. Even if the purchasing power of a shopping basket filled with average products increases, it doesn't necessarily lead to a feeling that "life has become easier."

Whose Wages Are "Average Wages"?

The next most common sentiment on social media was discomfort with average wages.

The survey assumes an average net hourly wage of 25.56 euros in 2025. However, on the bulletin board, posts like "I don't receive that hourly wage," "The average is skewed by high earners," and "It should be calculated with the median" were common.

The difference between the average and the median cannot be ignored when considering purchasing power.

If 9 out of 10 people earn 15 euros per hour and 1 person earns 100 euros per hour, the average hourly wage becomes 23.5 euros. However, in reality, 9 out of 10 people fall significantly below the average.

Moreover, even with the same hourly wage, living conditions differ. Singles and families with children, rural residents and city renters, homeowners and those with mortgages all have different amounts they can freely spend.

The explanation that "an average worker can buy a TV in 19 and a half hours" is useful for showing long-term trends in society as a whole. However, it doesn't directly represent individual lives.

Questioning Overseas Production That Supports Cheap Products

On social media, there were also opinions linking the decline in product prices to global division of labor and low-wage labor.

Many modern TVs, clothing, and daily necessities source parts and raw materials from multiple countries and are produced in relatively low-wage regions. From the perspective of workers in consumer countries, they can be purchased with short labor times, but this is underpinned by wage disparities with producing countries.

Additionally, there were concerns about durability, such as "Products in the past lasted longer, but is the replacement cycle shorter for current products?" and criticisms of fast fashion, mass disposal, and environmental impact.

Of course, not all past products were high quality, and modern appliances have made significant progress in safety, energy efficiency, and usability.

Nevertheless, "how many hours it takes to buy" alone cannot measure labor conditions in the production process, lifespan, repair costs, or environmental costs.

The labor time price is a convenient indicator, but it is not an all-encompassing number that represents all the social costs of a product.

Counterargument: "Still Wealthier Than Before"

On the other hand, there are posts defending the survey results.

In the 1960s, it was not uncommon for families to save for long periods to buy a TV, refrigerator, or washing machine. Repeatedly repairing clothes and passing them down among siblings was also common. Nowadays, many people use services like smartphones, air conditioning, the internet, and video streaming, which didn't exist back then.

Ignoring these changes and concluding that "everything was better in the past" is also not possible.

Today's young people may face tough situations regarding housing acquisition and future uncertainties. However, in terms of access to information, appliance performance, medical technology, means of transportation, and entertainment options, there are aspects where they are wealthier than past generations.

The debate on social media showed that it's not a simple confrontation of "which is wealthier, the past or now."

The wealth of owning things has increased. However, it doesn't necessarily mean that the wealth of securing a stable place to live, having a family, and planning for the future has increased. Understanding that these two types of wealth are separate is key to grasping the modern sense of living.

Even if Nominal Wages Increase in Japan, Real Wages Decrease

What would it look like if the same indicator were created in Japan?

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Monthly Labour Survey, the total cash earnings for establishments with five or more employees in fiscal 2025 was an average of 357,979 yen per month per person, a 2.5% increase from the previous year. The average total actual working hours per month was 135.0 hours.

Simply dividing, this equates to about 2,652 yen per hour, or about 44 yen per minute. However, this figure is before taxes and social insurance premiums are deducted and includes bonuses, so it differs from the calculation using Germany's net wages and is merely a rough estimate.

If we consider 44 yen per minute, a 200 yen loaf of bread equates to about 4 and a half minutes of work, a 50,000 yen washing machine to about 19 hours, and a 100,000 yen TV to about 38 hours of labor. Calculating with take-home pay would further increase the required time.

More importantly, whether the increase in nominal wages keeps up with rising prices is crucial.

In fiscal 2025, Japan's nominal wages increased by 2.5%, but real wages, adjusted by the consumer price index excluding imputed rent for owner-occupied housing, decreased by 0.5%. Even when adjusted by the overall index, there was a 0.1% decrease.

Additionally, the average national consumer price index for 2025 rose by 3.2% year-on-year.

Even if wage numbers increase, if the prices of necessary goods and services rise even more, the amount that can be bought with one minute of labor decreases. In Japan, at least as a recent household sentiment, this situation continues.

The "Gap Between Numbers and Reality" Felt by Japanese Households

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' Family Income and Expenditure Survey, the average monthly consumption expenditure for households with two or more people in 2025 was 314,001 yen per household. In nominal terms, this was a 4.6% increase from the previous year, and in real terms, adjusted for prices, it was a 0.9% increase.

Meanwhile, the average monthly real income for working households was 653,901 yen, which increased by 2.8% in nominal terms, but when adjusted by the price index excluding imputed rent for owner-occupied housing, it decreased by 0.9% in real terms.

In other words, even as real income decreases, households are increasing their spending.

This does not necessarily mean that life has become wealthier. Due to rising prices of food and daily necessities, the expenditure amount can swell just to maintain the same lifestyle.

With improvements in TV performance and the spread of internet services, it's undeniable that modern Japanese people live more conveniently than in the past.

However, if the burden of frequently purchased food, electricity and gas, rent, education, and caregiving increases, the benefits of cheaper appliances are less felt.

The psychological burden is greater when monthly food expenses increase by 5,000 yen than when a TV bought once every few years becomes 20,000 yen cheaper. This is because people are more conscious of changes in frequently purchased items and unavoidable payments.

Four Perspectives Needed for a Japanese Version of "Labor Time Price"

If Japan were to regularly publish "how many minutes of work are needed to