Employees Are Not Inquiring About Same-Sex Benefits

August 20, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Despite the increased coverage devoted to same-sex benefit policies, human resource departments have not had a flood of questions coming from their workforce.

Only 15% of HR professionals said inquires about same-sex benefits have increased within the past six months. By comparison, 20% have noticed an increase in the number of inquiries regarding opposite-sex domestic partner benefits, according to a poll conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

HR departments are not just sitting on their hands waiting for the dam to burst, however. Twenty-six percent of the respondents said their organizations have a plan in place to address employees' inquiries about same-sex marriage benefits. Additionally, SHRM found 27% of organizations currently offer same-sex domestic partner benefits, and another 2% said their company plans to offer the benefits in the coming year.

Eric Hazard
editors@plansponsor.com