> In California, which in 2004 became the first state to offer paid family leave, new mothers who took it that year ended up working less and earning less a decade later. They averaged $24,000 in cumulative lost wages, it found. “I could feel the air going out of the room when we presented this,”

How economical - thinking of free time, time with family, time not working, as "lost wages". Sometimes I feel like economists are an alien species...