Benefits for Domestic Partners
For the most part, local governments are not required to provide benefits, such as health, dental and vision insurance, to their employees. But, if such benefits are supplied, there is no requirement that they include coverage for an employee's spouse or dependent children. Whether and to what extent benefits will be provided is an issue of policy for the governing body to determine. A fairly typical situation---but certainly not the only one---is for the city, town, county or special district to pay for all or part of the cost of health-related insurance costs for its employees, and oftentimes for the employees' spouses and children.
Many employees today, however, have less traditional, but nevertheless committed, family relationships. The state legislature has recognized this change in recent years and has adopted legislation prohibiting discrimination based upon sexual orientation. During recent legislative sessions, bills have been adopted to provide, among other things, enhanced rights for same-sex couples, including the right to make hospital visitations, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and establishing inheritance rights for same sex couples when there is no will. But these legislative changes have not required employers to extend the health-related benefits they provide to same sex couples; that remains a decision for local governments and other employers. Nevertheless, some governments have responded and now provide the same coverage for same sex couples as they do for more traditional families. The state supreme court has upheld Vancouver's extension of benefits to domestic partners. See Heinsma v. City of Vancouver, 144 Wn. 2d 556 (2001).
Court Decisions
Heinsma v. City of Vancouver, 144 Wn. 2d 556 (2001) upheld Vancouver's extension of health benefits to committed domestic partners of city employees and the city's policy of allowing city employees to use their sick leave to care for their domestic partners or for their domestic partners' children. Cities have great latitude in implementing their employee benefits programs. The city's recognition of domestic partnership is limited and its program to include domestic partners in coverage does not unconstitutionally interfere with the legislature's ability to regulate familial relationships on a statewide level.
Documents
Making domestic partners eligible for benefits
- Anacortes Personnel Policy - See Policy 501 Health and Welfare Benefit Disclosure, Comment (6).
- Bellevue Ordinance No. 5744 - Amending definition of "immediate family" to make domestic partners eligible for insurance; also providing for declarations of marriage and domestic partnerships.
- Burien Ordinance No. 384 (
30 KB) - Extending eligibility for health insurance coverage to domestic partners and their children (following AWC decision to make health insurance coverage available through its Employee Benefit Trust to employees' domestic partners and their children)
- Des Moines Code - See sections 2.12.110 - 2.12.120.
- Kirkland Code section 3.80.030, defining "immediate family" to include domestic partners, making domestic partners eligible for city benefits.
- Spokane Ordinance No. C-33625 ( 39 KB) - Providing for the extension of employee benefits to employees' domestic partners.
- Tumwater Policies and Procedure Manual - See Part 1, Section 6, section 6.20.
- King County Benefits - See sections 3.12.010, 3.12.040, and 3.12.044.
- Pierce County Code chapter 3.98 - Extension of County employee benefits to employees' domestic partners and eligible children of the domestic partner on a basis equal to the benefits provided to employees for a spouse and eligible children of the spouse.
- RCW chapter 26.60 Establishes a registered domestic partnership program for the state, setting out requirements, a process for registration, fees, and for the termination of such partnerships
- Lacey Municipal Code chapter 2.86 - Providing for a domestic partnership registry.
- Seattle Municipal Code section 4.30.020 - Providing for affidavits of marriage and domestic partnerships
- Tumwater Ordinance No. 099-046 - Setting criteria for registering as a domestic partnership, fees, and dissolution of relationship.
- King County Code - See section 3.12.044 Sets out criteria for determining eligibility and requirements for affidavit of marriage/domestic partnership.
- AWC Employee Benefit Trust Affidavit of Marriage/Domestic Partnership
- Pierce County Affidavit of Marriage/Domestic Partnership
- San Francisco, California Declaration of Domestic Partnership ( 76 KB)
Articles
- Registered Domestic Partnerships: What Employers Need to Know, by Sofia D'Almeida Mabee, Employment Attorney, August 2009
Summit Law Group, PLLC