If you consider yourself a progressive employer, you may want to take a look at what this company’s offering.
Google just announced it’s going to start covering a cost that homosexual employees must pay when their partners receive domestic partner benefits.
Currently, employer-provided health benefits for domestic partners are counted as taxable income under federal law if the partner isn’t considered a dependent.
On average same-sex couples will pay close to $1,000 more per year in taxes than a heterosexual married couple with the same coverage.
Google has decided to cover those extra costs for its employees with same-sex domestic partners. The policy change is retroactive to the beginning of the year.
Two other things Google’s decided to do:
- Eliminate the one-year waiting period homosexual employees had to wait before qualifying for infertility benefits, and
- Including domestic partners in its family leave policy.
One reason the company decided to provide the extra compensation: In Silicon Valley where Google’s located, competition’s tight for top talent — and the thinking is the beefed-up benefits package may lure more top candidates to the Internet giant.
