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Domestic partner benefits are workplace health and life insurance benefits that are offered to employee’s that are unmarried, and or have a live-in partner. Many companies worldwide have questioned the advantages of offering domestic partner benefits to employees. Even though it is only mandatory in some states and countries, many companies are choosing to offer domestic partner benefits in an attempt to stay consistent with discrimination policies and gain an aggressive edge in hiring new employees. Common reasons companies choose to include these benefits are fairness, market competition and diversity. Within this proposal you will see the purpose of who will benefits from and how they he or she will benefit under the domestic partner benefits plane.
The reason why we should offer a domestic partner benefit package is to keep up with other major companies. In 2006, for the for the first time, a majority of the nation’s largest corporations provided health insurance for domestic partners of their employees( Human Rights Campaign: The State of the Workplace 2005-2006. See www.hrc.org/workplace). No matter how big or small the company is the trend towards domestic partner benefits are increasing as a good way of hiring and keeping talented employees. Domestic partner benefits include medical and dental insurance but may also include disability and life insurance, pension benefits, family and bereavement leave, education and tuition assistance, relocation and travel expenses, and inclusion of partners in company events.
Why should we as the employer consider offering domestic partner benefits?
Companies offer domestic partnership benefits for many different reasons. Our company should offer the domestic partnership plan for these three reasons:
1. Equal pay for equal work. For our gay employees, the section of the employee benefit plan that covers an employee’s dependents must be available without creating a disparity in compensation. By not making our employee