Dive Brief:
- Kroger, the nation's biggest supermarket chain, is now offering its transgender workers full benefits, including surgery and drug therapy for gender reassignment, as part of its employee health plan.
- The company, based in Cincinnati, has 400,000 employers at 2,500-plus stores, according to Forbes.
- Kroger is now the largest retail chain to offer trans-inclusive health coverage to its workers. The $37 billion company now joins Apple, Gap and GM, among others, in offering such a plan.
Dive Insight:
Kroger issued a statement on its internal social network, and it was published at the Cincinnati Enqiurer.
"For the last several years, the company’s GLBT associate resource group, The Alliance of Kroger (AOK), has made a dedicated effort to work with executive leaders and the Total Rewards leadership team to secure these benefits for our associates," said the statement, in part. "Medical procedures including surgery and drug therapy for gender reassignment will be covered up to a $100,000 lifetime maximum for eligible associates and their dependents."
The announcement is good news for transgender employees across the country, as it seems more and more large employers are getting with the program. However, as Forbes points out, in 2015, three million gay and transgender adults live in states that offer no protection from workplace discrimination.
