Domestic partner benefit programs were almost unheard of until the late 1980s. In the new millennium, however, many employers are choosing to provide domestic partner benefits in an effort to attract and retain qualified employees.

Under such programs, employees' unmarried or same-sex partners receive the same or similar health insurance as employees' spouses, as well as family, medical, and bereavement leave, and other workplace benefits.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation reported that, as of August 15, 2001, the number of companies, colleges, universities, and state and local governments offering health insurance covering domestic partners had increased by 50 percent, from 2,856 employers in August 1999 to 4,285 in August 2001.

Which Companies Provide Benefits?
According to HRCF, the trend toward offering domestic partner benefits is happening most aggressively among Fortune 500 companies. The number of Fortune 500 companies has more than doubled from 1998 to 2001. As of 2001, 145 of these companies had added domestic partner benefits.

How to Find a Company That Offers Domestic Partner Benefits
The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association reports that in late 2001 more than 77 media companies and outlets offered partner benefits to gay couples. The organization even furnishes a downloadable directory of them.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) provides a searchable employer database that lists employers and their policies regarding domestic-partner health-insurance benefits, and specifies whether benefits are offered to same-sex and/or opposite-sex partners. The HRC also offers advice on obtaining domestic partner benefits and discusses the legal implications of receiving them.

States Offering Benefits
Neither the U.S. federal government nor individual states require companies to offer domestic partner benefits that match spousal benefits. However, municipal governments in San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles have passed ordinances that require any company doing business with them to offer such policies to their employees.

An NGLTF report affirms that eight states–California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington–provide some level of domestic partner benefits to state employees.

Among these eight states:

Six offer health benefits to domestic partners of state employees (CA, CT, NY, OR, VT, WA).
One (MA) provides bereavement leave and family sick leave only
One (DE) provides bereavement leave only
Five (CA, CT, OR, VT, WA) extend dental care
One (CA) extends vision care
One (OR) extends life insurance and long-term care
Five (DE, MA, NY, OR, VT) are inclusive of all unmarried partners, same-sex and different-sex
Three (CA, CT, WA) allow benefits only to same-sex partners
Barriers to DP Benefits

Many domestic partner benefit programs do not provide benefits equivalent to those of spousal benefit programs. Employers may limit their range of benefits to nothing more than time off for bereavement or partner illness, and may not extend benefits to a partner’s children.

The Internal Revenue Service does not legally recognize domestic partner relationships, and considers companies’ payments to domestic partner programs to be taxable income. Employees with domestic partners should calculate whether the taxes they’ll pay are more costly than buying health insurance on their own.

Author Bio
Russ Naymark is a freelance writer for WetFeet.