Domestic Partnership Benefits: Equity, Fairness, and Competitive Advantage
As the American public becomes increasingly supportive of equity and fairness in the workplace, employers are discovering that domestic partner benefits programs make good business sense. Evolving social and economic pressures in support of these programs are contributing to their increased use as a competitive lever to attract a diverse, top-caliber workforce.
Context
When the Village Voice newspaper in New York City first offered benefits to non-married domestic partners of its employees in 1982, this represented a radical departure from tradition. Twenty-five years later, some 9,300 employers in the United States, including many of the nation’s largest and most successful companies, have extended their benefits programs to the domestic partners of employees and their dependents. Though such benefits are far from universally available, it is clear that a shift has taken place in American society, moving domestic partner benefits programs from the margins to the mainstream.
This development is consistent with growing public opposition to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It represents a new middle ground in society’s culture wars. At one extreme, there are those who wish to preserve the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman and to deny recognition of any legal status for same-sex couples. At the other extreme, there are those fighting for full marriage equality for same-sex couples. Between them, there is a very large group of individuals who support legal recognition through civil unions or domestic partnerships, but who oppose same-sex marriage. While both sides have intensified their efforts to achieve victories in statehouses, courts, ballot boxes, and Congress, domestic partner benefit programs have grown in popularity as a compromise solution that is acceptable to a large proportion of the American public. The term “domestic partner” itself is still in flux, but in general, it refers to an unmarried couple (same- or opposite-sex) who live together and who are committed to each other, certifying through some formal means that they are financially and legally interdependent.
Context
When the Village Voice newspaper in New York City first offered benefits to non-married domestic partners of its employees in 1982, this represented a radical departure from tradition. Twenty-five years later, some 9,300 employers in the United States, including many of the nation’s largest and most successful companies, have extended their benefits programs to the domestic partners of employees and their dependents. Though such benefits are far from universally available, it is clear that a shift has taken place in American society, moving domestic partner benefits programs from the margins to the mainstream.
This development is consistent with growing public opposition to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It represents a new middle ground in society’s culture wars. At one extreme, there are those who wish to preserve the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman and to deny recognition of any legal status for same-sex couples. At the other extreme, there are those fighting for full marriage equality for same-sex couples. Between them, there is a very large group of individuals who support legal recognition through civil unions or domestic partnerships, but who oppose same-sex marriage. While both sides have intensified their efforts to achieve victories in statehouses, courts, ballot boxes, and Congress, domestic partner benefit programs have grown in popularity as a compromise solution that is acceptable to a large proportion of the American public. The term “domestic partner” itself is still in flux, but in general, it refers to an unmarried couple (same- or opposite-sex) who live together and who are committed to each other, certifying through some formal means that they are financially and legally interdependent.
posted by aascu.news at 4:27 PM
