Domestic Partner Benefits Overview
Workplace Campaigns > Directory of Domestic Partner Benefits > Domestic Partner Benefits Overview

The Count

At least 77 media companies and unions offered employees domestic partner (DP) benefits including health insurance by October of 2001, up from 10 in 1994 and 26 in 1997. The current count probably underestimates the growth in DP benefits because of the flurry of media consolidations in recent years. These companies and unions encompassed more than 1,400 newspapers, stations, magazines, wire services and online news providers where DP medical benefits are available. Sixty of the top 100 U.S. newspapers (by circulation) offered DP benefits as of October 2001.

More than 145 (29%) of the Fortune 500 companies offer DP benefits, more than quadruple the number that offered them in 1997. Fortune magazine announced in December 2000, that 47 companies on its annual list of the "100 Best Companies To Work For" provide benefits for same-sex partners.

An estimated 22% of U.S. employers offer domestic partner benefits, more than twice the 10% that offered the benefits in 1997, according to a November 2000 survey by Hewitt Associates, a global management consulting and employee benefits delivery firm. Most of these (64%) cover both same-sex and opposite-sex partners. Of the 570 large employers surveyed, 85% said that the cost of DP benefits comprised less than 1% of total benefits costs. A 2000 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 25% of 754 companied surveyed offered DP benefits to opposite-sex partners and 16% offered these benefits to same-sex partners.

Organizations (NLGJA included) that have kept lists of all employers offering DP benefits have found it nearly impossible to keep up with the explosion in growth of DP benefits in recent years. The closest tracking is being done by the Human Rights Campaign, Washington, D.C., which estimates that more than 4,300 employers offer DP benefits. Ten years ago (1989), a mere five employers offered DP benefits.

An Associated Press poll of 1,012 Americans in May, 2000 found that at least half supported the rights of gays to receive health insurance (53%), Social Security benefits (50%) and inheritance (56%) from their partners.

The Costs

Surveys have shown repeatedly that providing DP benefits costs employers next to nothing. Typically fewer than 0.5% of employees enroll their same-sex partners; when both same-sex and opposite-sex partners are covered, usually fewer than 1% of employees sign up.

Employers that offer DP benefits to both same-sex and opposite-sex partners have seen 0.9% of employees enroll; costs were the same as or less than costs for spouses, according to data collected by the American Association for Single People. No adverse financial consequences were reported by any of these employers.

Enrollment numbers are low for several reasons. In our society, in which prejudice still exists, some gay and lesbian workers are afraid to be identified.

In addition, DP health benefits are not "free" to employees, as they are for married workers. The Internal Revenue Service considers company payments for DP benefits to be taxable income, so employees must calculate whether the taxes they would pay for DP benefits are more costly than buying health insurance themselves. Many domestic partners are covered by health insurance through their own workplaces.

As a result, the only workers who enroll partners for DP benefits are those who really need these policies.

The KPMG Peat Marwick report showed that health insurance premiums for domestic partners were cheaper or no more expensive than premiums for spouses. Early fears that the costs of AIDS care for domestic partners would increase premiums have proved unfounded.

DP benefits usually comprise less than 1% and rarely more than 2% of an employer's total health care benefits costs even if both same-sex and opposite-sex partners are covered, according to a 2000 report by the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies, "Calculating Costs with Credibility: Health Care Benefits for Domestic Partners."

In interviews for this directory, media companies consistently reported the financial impact of DP benefits as "negligible" or "minimal," or said they had not bothered to track the numbers. Past data suggest that covering same-sex partners adds well under 0.5% to annual medical benefits budgets.

At the University of California, extending DP benefits in 1997 to same-sex partners cost far less than predicted. A total of 701 employees and retirees enrolled their partners for medical and dental coverage, representing 0.5% of 130,000 current and retired employees in the health plan. The policy added about $1 million (0.2%) to the university's annual $442 million health insurance budget.

In addition, UC employees were allowed to enroll financially dependent relatives who lived with them, which added another 404 enrollees. Combined, the dependent relatives and same-sex partners added $1.8 million to the health care budget, less than the $1.9 million to $5.6 million anticipated.

The Rationale

Equal pay for equal work — that's the principle behind domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian workers. On average, benefits account for 39% of payroll, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. If only married employees receive some benefits, gays and lesbians are excluded from a significant share.

Employees who cannot provide health insurance for their loved ones through workplace policies face financial hardships and stress in trying to cover the costs of medical care or insurance themselves.

DP benefits put nondiscrimination policies into practice. It is contradictory to say that gay and lesbian employees will be treated equally but their "spouses" will not. After all, these relationships are what define them as gay or lesbian.

DP benefits convey the message that an employer will judge gay and lesbian employees by the work they do, not by who they are. In the news industry, the quality of news coverage can only improve when employees feel they can contribute ideas, angles and contacts for stories without fear of repercussion.

Providing DP benefits is not only a smart, competitive business decision, but a symbol to all gay and lesbian employees that they are fully and equally valued at their institutions.

Media Trends

Media mergers and acquisitions have helped spread DP benefits. When Knight-Ridder acquired four television stations from Capital Cities/ABC, which offered DP benefits, Knight-Ridder management decided to give all its divisions the option of providing DP benefits. The McClatchy Co. bought the Minneapolis Star-Tribune from Capital Cities/ABC, and shortly thereafter made DP benefits an option at its other papers. After the Hearst Corp., which urges its divisions to offer DP benefits, acquired the 14 Pulitzer Publishing broadcast stations, those stations adopted DP benefits.

Protests and boycotts by opponents of DP benefits appear to have had little effect. A well-publicized campaign to boycott Disney (which owns ABC) because of the company's gay-friendly policies did not affect the corporation. When a reader wrote to cancel her subscription to the Seattle Times to protest the paper's DP benefits policy, publisher Frank Blethen wrote back, saying she might as well plan to never buy a Microsoft product, never drink Starbucks coffee, never get medical care in the Kings County health system, and never set foot in the City of Seattle, all of which provide DP benefits to employees.

Unions increasingly have been winning DP benefits in contracts. The Newspaper Guild made DP benefits a mandatory bargaining subject in 1992. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) made DP benefits available to thousands of members through its health plan in 1998.

When a union member threatened to quit the Communications Workers of America because it negotiated DP benefits in a contract with AT&T, union leaders wrote back suggesting that the member cancel her telephone service as well, if that's the way she felt.

Competitive Factors

Enough media companies offer DP benefits that it has become a competitive issue. A few anecdotes from NLGJA members drive home this point.

A rural paper recruited one reporter in part by pointing out that the paper offered DP benefits. Another NLGJA member being recruited by The Washington Post decided not to take the job partly due to the fact that the paper did not offer DP benefits at that time. Shortly after that, the company began allowing its divisions to offer DP benefits.

A reporter being recruited by Gannett demanded and won $5,000 more in annual pay when she found out that Gannett does not offer DP benefits. A reporter recruited by a Tribune Co. newspaper demanded and won $1,500 more per year in pay to cover his partner's health insurance. As these demands increase, companies will find it more cost-effective simply to offer DP benefits. Gannett and Tribune Co. now offer DP benefits.

With the online availability of this directory, journalists can easily determine which workplaces offer DP benefits, and will be attracted to companies that show they are willing to treat gay and lesbian employees fairly.

Legal Trends

Numerous court cases and legislation dealing with domestic partners made headlines in recent years.

Seattle became the second U.S. city requiring its major private contractors to provide gay and lesbian couples the same benefits as married employees, in a November, 1999 ordinance.

A growing number of Hawaii businesses have started offering DP benefits to remain competitive, even though challenges defeated a 1997 "reciprocal beneficiaries" law that tried to require DP benefits. "It's not a political issue; it's a business decision," Duane Feekin, executive vice president of the Bank of Hawaii, told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. "To attract and retain the best talent, we have to have a benefit package appropriate for the 20th century."

Court cases seeking same-sex marriage in Hawaii and Vermont prompted the federal legislature to pass the "Defense of Marriage Act" defining married couples as a man and a woman, and a number of states have passed similar laws. In April, 2000, Vermont became the first state to grant gays and lesbians civil unions with the same rights as marriage. In December, 1999, the Hawaii Supreme Court declared the lawsuit moot and reinstated a law making marriage licenses available only to heterosexual couples.

Five states — California, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington — are among the 68 U.S. governmental bodies that provide DP benefits to government employees. An Oregon appeals court said the state is constitutionally required to recognize same-sex domestic partnerships and to provide benefits to them. The ruling also banned any form of employment discrimination against lesbians and gay men, including discrimination by private employers.

At least 11 states and the District of Columbia now have laws protecting lesbians and gay men against workplace discrimination. The Georgia Supreme Court in November of 1997 upheld a policy allowing Atlanta city employees to include dependent partners in their insurance coverage, but Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine refused to approve changes that would allow DP benefits. A court ruling in September of 1999 ordered Oxendine to lift his ban on DP coverage in insurance policies. Los Angeles created a formal registry for domestic partners to assist businesses that want to extend DP benefits but have concerns about who may qualify.

In June, 2000, a new Canadian law virtually guaranteed equality for same-sex unions and heterosexual marriages by rewriting the legal definition of "common law marriage" to include same-sex and heterosexual couples who have lived together for more than one year. A separate bill, expected to be passed this fall, would extend immigration privileges to same-sex couples and their dependents.

 The Future

The availability of DP benefits does not erase inequities in the treatment of gay and lesbian employees, who must pay taxes on the imputed income. (See "Costs," above.) Employers often require domestic partners to provide financial records, a certificate from a municipal domestic partnership registry, or other evidence of an established relationship, and require that domestic partners have lived together for 6-12 months to qualify for benefits, none of which are required of heterosexual spouses.

DP benefits do not begin to address the 27 or so state and federal rights conveyed to spouses by marriage but unavailable to domestic partners, such as automatic inheritance, child custody, domestic violence protection, insurance breaks, immigration rights, Social Security survivor benefits, tax breaks, and veteran's discounts.

But DP benefits comprise a huge step toward treating gays and lesbians fairly in the workplace. NLGJA believes that it is only a matter of time before all media companies begin treating their gay and lesbian employees more equitably by including domestic partners in benefits.