The Cost of Being Gay

A look at the financial realities of same-sex partnerships.

American Express is the latest company to equalize the cost of health insurance benefits for heterosexual employees and employees with same-sex partners.

The movement to reimburse gay employees for the extra taxes they must pay has gained momentum in recent weeks: American Express joins Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, which also recently announced that they would adopt the policy.

We’ve been keeping close tabs on which companies have decided to equalize the cost of benefits in this chart. As it stands now, a total of seven big financial institutions equalize benefits for workers, trailing only law firms, where, last we counted, 16 firms offered the reimbursement. Four big technology companies and five big consulting firms do the same.

Under federal law, employer-provided health benefits for domestic partners are counted as taxable income, if the partner is not considered a dependent. On top of that, the employees cannot use pretax dollars to pay for their premiums — unlike their opposite-sex married counterparts.

Since gay unions are not recognized by the federal government, same-sex couples can not avoid the extra costs by getting married. So while many large employers offer health insurance coverage for domestic partners, these employees must pay more to use it.

Like many of its competitors, American Express is only reimbursing employees with same-sex partners and their dependents. The policy will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2012, and employees will receive the reimbursements — also known as a “gross up” — every pay period, a company spokesman said.

Who are we missing? Will Citi and JPMorgan Chase be next? Please let us know if you learn of any other companies that decide to reimburse their gay and lesbian employees.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=60d57c5b80cad44c46d8fd473ce0b482