Three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court established the right of same-sex couples to marry nationwide, it's unclear how the decision will affect the millions of Americans who have entered domestic partnerships in recent years as well as the companies who offer domestic partnership benefits.
Of 153 companies responding to an online survey by Mercer, a health care advocacy group, 19 percent provided benefits only to employees in same-sex relationships, presumably because those workers couldn't marry. Now that that's no longer an issue, 23 percent of those companies said they plan to drop DP plans in the next year and another 23 percent said they will consider ditching the plans in the next two to three years. Such changes in policy create a significant financial incentive for some couples to tie the knot.
Read: How the same-sex ruling affects benefits managers
However, most of the surveyed companies offered DP benefits to opposite-sex couples as well. These firms are much less likely to drop plans in light of the court decision, with 62 percent reporting that they are not considering any changes.
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The number of companies providing DP benefits has increased dramatically in recent years as the push for LGBT rights has gained steam politically. Mercer's national survey of over 2,500 employers last year showed that the proportion of large employers (over 500 employees) offering DP benefits had risen from 39 percent to 55 percent over the past five years, while 76 percent of "jumbo" employers (over 20,000 employees) offered DP benefits.
The national survey also revealed big regional variations in company practices. A whopping 78 percent of companies in the west offered DP benefits, compared to 60 percent in the northeast, 46 percent in the south and 45 percent in the midwest.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
