MORE COMPANIES OK DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP BENEFITS: From the Associated Press (but it's basically a Human Rights Campaign press release)

Private employers are introducing domestic-partner health insurance benefits to gays at the rate of three companies a day, according to a study by the educational arm of a gay rights advocacy group.

The analysis by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation found more than 1,000 private employers and colleges and universities added domestic-partner benefits in 2003, 18 percent more than the year before.

Some 40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies now offer domestic-partner benefits, including nearly 70 percent of the 50 top businesses.

Employers in all states should soon expect to see an effect from the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision legalizing marriage for same-sex couples, according to the report being released Thursday.

Same-sex marriage becomes legal in Massachusetts on May 17. Once marriage licenses are available to same-sex couples in that state, employers elsewhere may face more pressure from workers to match the benefits available in Massachusetts, the report said. ...

The study focused on health insurance at work because that is the most sensitive to company policy and state law. Pension arrangements such as 401(k) plans are governed by federal law.

The report said 7,149 private employers and colleges and universities provided health coverage to employees' domestic-partners in 2003, though that was less than 1 percent of the total number of such employers. ...

The report says a "significant proportion of corporate America is already well positioned to deal with changes in the law that will result from the advent of legal marriage for same-sex couples."

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posted by Eve at 9:30 AM | link

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