If your firm is looking for a progressive way to bolster your benefits package, you may want to follow in the footsteps of these companies.
The option: covering the extra costs employees must pay when their partners receive domestic partner benefits.
Facebook became the most recent company to join a growing list of prominent businesses that now includes Google, Cisco, Bain & Company, Barclays bank and a host of others.
Employer-provided health benefits for domestic partners are currently counted as taxable income under federal law if an employees’ partner isn’t a dependent. This ends up costing same-sex couples an average of $1,000 per year more than a heterosexual married couple with the same healthcare coverage.
Facebook and others have decided to essentially provide extra compensation to cover those costs for employees with same-sex domestic partner benefits.