Same-Sex Marriage Decision a Win for Employers?
Truth to tell, most employers would prefer not to become involved in the details of their employees' personal lives. But from tax withholding to benefits administration, employers have no choice but to collect identifying information about their workers and, in many cases, those workers' family arrangements.
July 01, 2015 at 02:00 PM
5 minute read
Last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges generated celebrations, condemnations and headlines. Initially, news coverage focused heavily on tensions, real or threatened, between government functions and individual religious beliefs. But when the new work week began, the decision's impact was felt keenly, and much more quietly, in what has become a principal laboratory of social and legal change: the workplace.
Truth to tell, most employers would prefer not to become involved in the details of their employees' personal lives. But from tax withholding to benefits administration, employers have no choice but to collect identifying information about their workers and, in many cases, those workers' family arrangements. By reducing the complexities of these requirements, Obergefell is, from an administrative standpoint, a win for employers.
Two years ago, in U.S. v. Windsor, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government must recognize all valid marriages, including those of same-sex couples. As a result, federal benefits tied to marriage could not be denied to same-sex couples. But the remaining gap between federal and state recognition of such marriages forced some employers to treat some married employees differently than other married employees.
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