Separate research suggests women paid a long-term priceThe study from the think tank focused on woman’s issues stands in contrast with different research from economists at the University of Michigan that said the employment rate for first-time mothers who took paid parental leave in California dropped 7% over a decade.Women who took such leave lost an estimated $24,000 over 10 years compared to women who didn’t, according to the researchers, who dug into the financial consequences of the country’s first paid leave law, according to that study by economists at the University of Michigan, the University of Utah, Middlebury College and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. That could nudge women back towards child care – especially when day care bills are so high.California’s law lets men take paid time off but their wages and employment weren’t affected, the study noted.”What the $24,000 means depends on who is doing the deciding,” University of Michigan Professor Martha Bailey, one of the study’s authors, told MarketWatch. If employers are pushing out new mothers, the $24,000 could be viewed as a $24,000 deprivation in wages, she said. On the other hand, she said, “if women are opting out, you can think about this as a $24,000 investment in the next generation.”

More about Bailey’s research on paid parental leave cited in MarketWatch >