Impacts of Marriage Equality on Benefits and HR Policies

Scott Schneider was quoted in Corporate Counsel on June 30, 2015. The article “Impacts of Marriage Equality on Benefits and HR Policies” discussed why employers should go back and take a fresh look at how their policies treat same-sex married couples, in light of the Obergefell v. Hodges decision.

Scott was quoted on the impact this ruling will have on employers.

Despite that, the ruling will prompt employers to think about marriage at least a little differently from the health benefits perspective. “Depending on how your plan defines ‘spouses,’ people that were not spouses before in states like Alabama or Texas are now spouses,” Scott, told CorpCounsel.com. Although many employers, including those with a presence in states where same-sex marriage was not yet legal, have always offered benefits to employees regardless of sexual orientation (whether as married or unmarried partners), there will be some who need to rethink this post-Obergefell.

“I feel like especially for large employers it might make sense for them to come out now and say: ‘Here are the forms where you have to declare a spouse that might be impacted, here’s window of time we’re going to give you to amend those forms,’” Scott said.

To read the full article, please visit Corporate Counsel.