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Domestic partnership benefits are soaring toward becoming commonplace
in corporate America. The rapid pace of change is vividly demonstrated
by the domino effect caused by United Airlines' recent decision to get
on board.
United, the world's largest airline, announced July 30 that it will
extend domestic partner benefits--including health, pension, and all
other spousal fringe benefits--to the partners of its gay workers. Just
six days after United became the first U.S. carrier to offer domestic
partner benefits, American Airlines became the second. A day later,
U.S. Airways said it, too, is joining the trend.
"This is another instance of how domestic partner benefits cascade
through a market sector. It happened first in the information
technology sector in the early 1990s, and it's happening now in the oil
industry, in the Big Five accounting firms, in banking, and elsewhere,"
notes Kim Mills, head of WorkNet, the gay Human Rights Campaign's
workplace fairness project.
Just a few years ago, domestic partner benefits were embraced by only a
handful of high-tech startups, universities and progressive city
governments. Corporate managers were dubious about what many viewed as
a radical innovation rather than as natural outgrowth of the principle
of equal pay for equal work. The first publicly traded company to offer
domestic partner benefits was Lotus Development Corp. The year was 1992.
But astute managers soon saw the cost of treating gay workers' partners
fairly as minimal and saw fears of a significant consumer backlash as
groundless. They began teaching corporate giants to recognize that
domestic partnership benefits make good business sense. Also driving
home that lesson were San Francisco's historic 1997 law forcing city
contractors to treat gay and straight workers equally, the growing
influence of gay employee groups, and an unusually tight job market.
Domestic partner benefits are now widely viewed as a smart way to
attract and retain good workers.
Today, domestic partner benefits are as mainstream as IBM, AT&T,
General Mills, Marriott, Walt Disney, and Avon Products. They are among
the 71 Fortune 500 companies already offering them. All told, more than
2,800 U.S. employers provide such benefits, according to HRC's ever-
increasing count (available at www.hrc.org/worknet ). Often, partner
benefits are also extended to straight unmarried couples.
Domestic partner benefits, which range from survivor's pension benefits
to credit union membership, are offered by 73 state and local
governments, including Ann Arbor, and by 99 universities, including
Wayne State University, Michigan State University, the University of
Michigan, and Eastern Michigan University.
United's momentous announcement came just hours after a federal appeals
court ruled that airlines must be in compliance with the innovative law
when they renew their leases at San Francisco's airport. However, the
order only required that airlines give "soft" benefits, such as
bereavement leave and spousal flight discounts, to San Francisco-based
workers. United went much further by extending full benefits to its gay
workers worldwide.
"United was saying, We acknowledge our gay employees.' It was a bold
stand," says Billy Kolber-Stuart, editor of the gay travel magazine Out
& About.
"I think we will see the other airlines come around," he says, adding
that hotel chains lead the travel industry on partner benefits.
Terry Thompson, a Hewitt Associates consultant who helps set up
domestic partnership programs, compares the spread of partner benefits
to the way 401(k) savings plans quickly became a corporate fixture.
Within large companies, partner benefits are "moving rapidly toward
being the absolute norm," she says. More and more she hears, "We really
have to do this for competitive reasons."
Clearly, the wind is with us. We're flying toward a fairer work-a-day
world.
Deb Price's column is published on Monday. Write letters to The News at
615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226, or fax to (313) 222-6417 or send
e-mail to letters@detnews.com
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