Employee Benefits for Domestic Partners

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In most of the marriage-equivalent states, employers are required to
treat registered domestic partners or partners in a civil union exactly the
same as they treat heterosexual married couples.
Local registration. Some cities and counties allow residents to register
locally as domestic partners, but these registrations do not impose marital
rights or duties. Often, a county transfer tax exemption for property
transfers between partners—saving anywhere from a few hundred to a
few thousand dollars in taxes when a house is transferred or sold—is the
most meaningful benefit offered by local entities.
State registration. In California, Washington State, the District of
Columbia, Oregon, and Nevada, the term has a very specific legal meaning:
Only couples who have registered with the state are legally domestic
partners, and as a result they have a slew of rights and responsibilities that
are almost identical to those that come with marriage. So are similar
programs that go by the name civil unions in New Jersey, Delaware,
Illinois, Hawaii, and Rhode Island. Chapter 2 has details about all of
these relationship options.
Employee Benefits for Domestic Partners
For many in the LGBT community, domestic partnership seems like
“half a loaf” of bread, while married folks get the entire package.
Although the whole loaf of bread remains unavailable to most same-sex
couples, hundreds of government entities and private businesses offer
valuable benefits to the domestic partners of their employees.
Who Provides Benefits
Hundreds of employers, including more than a dozen states and many
Fortune 500 companies, now provide domestic partner benefits to their
employees. In fact, in 2006, the number of Fortune 500 companies
offering domestic partner benefits passed the halfway point. This means
that the employer treats the employee’s registered domestic partner the
same as it treats the spouse of a married employee—sometimes for all
purposes, sometimes for only some. Some companies offer benefits to
18  |  A Legal guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples
both straight and gay couples, while others offer them only to same-sex
partners because heterosexual couples have the option of marrying legally.
States That Offer Domestic Partner Benefits to State Employees
California
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Hawaii
Illinois
Iowa
Maine
Montana
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
Washington
Wisconsin
In addition to these states, hundreds of municipalities and counties all
over the country offer domestic partnership benefits to employees, along
with 60% of the top colleges and universities.
Finding companies that provide benefits. For useful links and
information on domestic partnership benefits, including a list of major
companies that provide domestic partnership benefits and a guide to
getting your employer to offer domestic partner benefits, check out the
Alternatives to Marriage project website at www.unmarried.org.
Working for domestic partner benefits. If you are interested in working
with your employer to establish domestic partnership benefits, get a copy
of The Domestic Partnership Organizing Manual for Employee Benefits,
published by the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force. You can download it from the NGLTF website at www.
thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research/dp_manual.
Finding public employers that provide benefits. For a list of states,
municipalities, and other entities offering domestic partnership benefits,
as well as updates on related litigation, go to the domestic partnership
section of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund’s website at
www.lambdalegal.org. At the Human Rights Campaign’s website at
www.hrc.org, you can check out the Corporate Equality Index to see how
well private employers are doing in providing benefits.
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Kinds of Benefits
Different employers offer very different benefits. Some offer only sick or
bereavement leave when a domestic partner becomes ill or dies. Others
provide benefits that are extensive—and expensive. They may include:
• health, dental, and vision insurance
• accident and life insurance, and
• parental leave (for a child you coparent).
There is no legal right to domestic partner benefits, even if the
employer provides benefits for spouses, unless you live in a state with
marriage or a marriage equivalent or in a city that requires employers
doing business there to treat spouses and domestic partners equally,
and you are married or registered. Otherwise, it is up to the employer
to decide what benefits it offers, and at what cost. In some instances,
domestic partnership benefits are being phased out if full legal marriage is
available.
Even if an employer treats domestic partners just like spouses, the
benefit may be less valuable to domestic partners because of the way tax
laws are currently written. If the employer foots the bill for the partner’s
health benefits, for example, the employee must pay federal taxes on the
value of the benefit—while an employee whose spouse received these
benefits would not be taxed. This is because the IRS considers benefits
awarded to an unmarried partner as part of the employee’s taxable
compensation (in contrast to benefits for spouses). An employer can
compensate for this inequality by boosting the gross pay of workers who
have to pay taxes on their domestic partners’ benefits, in order to make
their net pay equal to that of their married counterparts.
Qualifying for Benefits
To qualify for domestic partner benefits, you must put your domestic
partnership on record with the employer. Commonly, the employer
provides a simple form (usually a sworn statement) for the employee and
partner to sign. Usually, partners must state that they live together in
an exclusive relationship and share the basic necessities of life, and that
neither is married to or in a domestic partnership with someone else.