As long as your company is consistent, you can give benefits to whomever you want, right? A recent court ruling took that decision away from public employers in one state.
Public employers in Michigan aren’t allowed to offer health insurance benefits to domestic partners of their employees, according to the State Supreme Court.
Reason: The state constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage approved by voters in November 2004, makes offering domestic partner benefits illegal, according to the court.
After the amendment passed, State Attorney General Mike Cox told the city of Kalamazoo it must suspend domestic partner benefits.
Several city and county governments and state universities in Michigan offered these benefits. A group of 21 people, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, went to court to appeal Cox’s decision.
They won in trial court, lost at the appeals level, and now the state’s highest court has sided with the Attorney General and appeals court.
After the appeals courts ruling, several public employers reworded their benefit plans to comply with the constitutional amendment while still offering domestic partner benefits.
It’s unclear how the high court’s ruling will affect those benefit plans now.
The plans are written in such a way to include gay and straight couples who aren’t married. To qualify, couples must meet certain requirements, including proof of co-residency.
The court ruling doesn’t affect private-sector companies that provide domestic partner benefits.
There are an estimated 375 couples in Michigan who participated in public employers’ domestic partner benefit programs.
Different rulings in other states
The Michigan ruling has been unique among states where the question of domestic partner benefits provided by public employers has been raised.
In nine other states, courts have ruled that similar defense-of-marriage constitutional amendments or laws don’t affect public employers’ domestic partner benefit plans. Forty-one states have some sort of anti-gay-marriage amendment or law.
(Those nines states with court opinions contrary to Michigan’s are Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, Colorado, Massachusetts and California.)
The public employers weren’t the pioneers in domestic partner benefits. Private businesses took the lead.
Emerging research is showing this to be a cost-effective strategy for attracting and retaining high-quality workers. Currently, more than half (at least 269) of the Fortune 500 companies provide domestic partner benefits.
Private companies offering these benefits also aren’t limiting them to same-sex couples. A study shows 58% of these policies extend to same- and opposite-sex non-married couples.
We’d like to hear from you on this issue. Does your company offer domestic partner benefits? Drop us a note in the comments box below.
