May 31, 2012

Richard Milstein and Jeffrey Cook recently co-authored a guest blog, "Employee Benefits: An Incomplete 'Gross-Up' of Government Discrimination," in the Huffington Post.

In the blog, Richard and Jeffrey discuss the discrimination that is borne by those employees in same-sex relationships whose employers offer domestic partner benefits. Because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal government taxes the value of these benefits as income -- not so for the spousal benefits of heterosexual employees. They point out that, based on a study by the Williams Institute, on average, an employee pays $1,000 per year in taxes on domestic partner benefits that a married heterosexual employee with the same coverage. Richard and Jeffrey opine that as a result, same-sex couples face both a financial and emotional slight in this context.