A benefit built for 2 - Focus on Benefits - includes related articles - employee benefits for domestic partners

HR Magazine, August, 1999 by Susan J. Wells

In spite of legal and administrative complication benefits coverage for domestic partners appears to be slowly spreading.

When a few companies began offering benefits for domestic partners more than a decade ago, some workplace experts cast a cautious look at what may have initially seemed a passing fad. But today more companies are considering benefits for same-sex and opposite-sex partners as they scramble for new ways to attract and retain employees.

"There continues to be a great deal of interest in domestic partner benefits among employers," says Andrew D. Sherman, senior vice president in the Boston office of The Segal Co., a New York-based HR consulting firm.

Carol Hickman agrees. Hickman is the senior manager of benefits and HRMS at Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. in South Burlington, Vt. More than 10 years ago, Ben & Jerry's became one of the first privately held firms to offer spousal benefits to same-sex and opposite-sex partners and their dependent children. The company served as a model for other pioneering companies, such as Levi-Strauss and Co. and Lotus Development Corp., says Hickman.

Since then, other organizations have followed the lead and the trend appears to be catching on, albeit slowly.

For example, fewer than a half dozen U.S. employers offered "spousal equivalent" benefits in 1990, according to the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) in Washington. Today, however, the same group reports that domestic partner benefits are offered by:

* 87 cities, counties and states.

* 141 colleges and universities.

* 570 companies, foundations and nonprofits.

The Human Rights Campaign, an equal and gay rights advocacy group in Washington, reports similar numbers. As of May 5, 1999, the group estimates that domestic partner benefits were offered by:

* 67 state and local governments.

* 90 colleges and universities.

* 483 private-sector employers.

The SHRM Benefits Surveys also show a slow upward trend in the number of employers offering domestic partner benefits - from 6 percent in 1997, to 7 percent in 1998 and 9 percent in 1999.

However, the trend is by no means universal. Of the 829 HR professionals responding to the 1999 survey, 86 percent said their firms don't offer domestic partner coverage.

The SHRM statistics may suggest that employers continue to grapple with a host of issues related to the process of extending and designing the coverage. That conclusion becomes all the more believable when you consider that legal, administrative and other factors continue to muddy the waters of the domestic partner issue, making the decision to offer such benefits relatively complex.

For some employers, recognizing societal shifts may be at the root of the decision to offer such benefits. Not only are labor markets tight - and expected to remain so - but demographics also are at play. For example, the number of unmarried-couple households jumped from 1.6 million in 1980 to 4.2 million in 1998, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

What Benefits Are Included?

The scope of benefits varies according to how a company defines a domestic partner. The majority of employers offering partner benefits (94 percent} provide health care coverage, according to a 1995 survey of 459 benefits professionals by the International Society of Certified Employee Benefits Specialists in Brookfield, Wis.

In addition, more than two-thirds of respondents (68 percent) offer non-health benefits to domestic partners, in the following proportions:

* Life insurance (offered by 83 percent of organizations that provide more than just health care).

* Invitations to employer functions (60 percent).

* Employee assistance program services (58 percent).

* Bereavement leave (56 percent).

* Family/sick leave (56 percent).

* Pension (42 percent).

* Child-care services (27 percent).

* Use of employer fitness facilities (25 percent).

How Policies Evolve

How do you know if your employees are part of the growing pool of Americans who may be interested in benefits for domestic partners?

One way is to listen. Employees typically bring the subject to management's attention through diversity groups. At Coors Brewing Co., of Golden, Colo., for example, the company's Lesbian and Gay Employee Resource group, known as LAGER, encouraged the company to consider domestic partner benefits. As a result, Coors decided to extend medical, dental and vision benefits to domestic partners in 1995, says Barbara Albanesi, manager of benefits.

Segal's Sherman recommends getting specific feedback from your workforce to help determine employee interest in domestic partner benefits. Sherman also suggests that HR professionals ask themselves: What are the current participation levels in your benefits plans? Can you point to competitive reasons for adding such a policy?

Tower Records, the 218-store record and video retailer based in Sacramento, Calif., asked those questions before deciding to extend its coverage to domestic partners. "We have such a diverse employee population," says Renee Gromacki, HR manager. "Upper management and employees alike felt it was an important issue that made sense for us as a company."