domestic partner

Theory suggests that domestic partner benefits improve recruitment and retention by enhancing LGBT employee voice, equity, and economic considerations.

However, Eason says, before eliminating domestic partner benefits, employers must also consider whether those are needed to satisfy demands such as government contractor requirements-regulations a state or city imposes on companies it does business with.

These companies should be encouraged to keep domestic partner health benefits for both gay and non-gay unmarried couples in place, as well as spousal health insurance policies that treat all couples equally.

We were really wanting to embrace domestic partners whether it was same gender or opposite, but what we were faced with is we have 100 percent healthcare.

For employers that offer domestic partner health benefits, the cost "has been negligible," the Human Rights Campaign said on its website.

For most companies, the cost of adding domestic partner benefits is quite low, typically less than 2% of total benefit costs, according a report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (McDonnell, 2009).

For example, the New York statute permits physicians to turn to spouses or domestic partners for guidance, but a given patient may have both a spouse and a domestic partner.

"Within five days of my asking the question, our firm began offering domestic partner benefits," she says.

By his reasoning, Kentucky voters rejected the idea of domestic partner benefits when they passed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

OHIO'S MIAMI University offers domestic partners of gay employees the same benefits--health and dental insurance, recreation center discounts, tuition waivers--that it extends to the spouses of married employees.