Dive Brief:
- This week marked the first anniversary of Obergefell v. Hodges, the historic case in which the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Despite some early confusion, the change has had minimal negative impact on benefits packages, according to a legal expert.
- For HR, the biggest challenge was expected to be on employers in the states that had not yet legalized gay marriage. But it didn't materialize, explains Mark Phillis, of Littler Mendelson.
- "Employers mainly have found that the change was not nearly as disruptive to their workplace as they may have feared," he says, adding that in many ways, in fact, employers have found the change has simplified employee benefits administration.
Dive Insight:
On a fundamental level, most employers quickly modified their employee handbooks to ensure their policies refer to spouse generically rather than husband or wife, Phillis says. And even where there may be opposition by some employees to marriage equality, such a change generally has not raised concerns.
However, he adds, even though marriage equality is now the law of the land, more than half of the states do not expressly prohibit discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. As a result, not all same-sex married employees may be willing to disclose their relationship to their employers if they fear their job may be jeopardized by coming out.
"Since employers compete for top talent," he says, "employers may want to consider internal policies expressly prohibiting discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression even in jurisdictions that do not expressly prohibit such conduct." That way, he says, they can attract and retain both LGBT employees, as well as any employees who seek to ensure that their workplaces value diversity and inclusion.
