June 24 was a good day for gay lawyers at Weil, Gotshal & Manges. On that day, the New York state legislature passed a bill that would allow same-sex marriage. On the same day, Weil announced it would give a salary boost to gay and lesbian employees who enroll their same-sex domestic partners and spouses in the firm’s health care plan. Just a lucky coincidence, according to the firm.
Weil’s salary boost is known as a “gross-up.” It’s shorthand for paying an employee a higher gross amount so that he will receive a targeted after-tax salary. Weil felt that a gross-up was necessary because gay employees pay a federal tax on the value of their domestic partners’ health care benefits that married, heterosexual couples are exempt from. (Many states tax the benefit as well.) “Our policy is designed to level the playing field among all of our employees regardless of sexual orientation,” says Daniel Dokos, a Weil partner who heads the firm’s LGBT affinity group.
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