The Department of Labor has announced that same-sex marriages will be included under the provisions of the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act (ERISA), which regulates employee benefit plans. In response, Dale Carpenter sticks a fork in domestic partnership programs:
ERISA covers only “spouses” and will not be extended to domestic partners. Since federal benefits will now be available to same-sex spouses wherever they live, many companies across the country will likely end their domestic-partnership programs. Other companies, which never had such programs, will now be providing full benefits to all married couples, gay or straight. One effect of the widespread recognition of gay marriage has been, and will continue to be, to release the hydraulic pressure to create alternative statuses. Three decades of experimentation with alternative family statuses like civil unions and domestic partnerships is coming to an end.
Stephen H. Miller is unconvinced:
Wal-mart, the largest retail employer in the U.S., just announced it’s launching domestic partner benefits for employees and their (unmarried) same-sex and opposite-sex partners. Given the decline in straight marriage, particularly among those with lower incomes, there may yet be a future for partner status, confirmed by employers if not by the state.
The Dish 