Some employees are asking employers to go beyond
domestic partnership benefits and allow every employee
to declare on other adult as their designated
beneficiary regardless of whether that other adult is
a friend, roommate, adult child, parent, adult
sibling, cousin or other relative, intimate partner,
spouse, etc.
The plans require that the employee bear the same part
of the cost that they would for such benefits for
another adult if that other adult was their
spouse(minus the tax deductibility of spousal
benefits).
Interstingly, the Graduate Employee Organization at
the University of Michigan is threatening to walk off
the job over the university refusing to move to a
designated beneficiary model. Part of the employees
argument is that it looks like the University of
Michigan's benefits will no longer be legal under the
anti-gay marriage "plus" amendment passed there this
past November. The idea is that since no benefits
would be offerred based on someone being a spouse or
domestic partner but rather based on simple
designation by the employee that they could get around
the constitutional amendment which would disallow them
offerring marital based benefits to unmarried people.
Since 71% of households in Minneapolis are headed by
unmarried inidividuals, couples, roommates, etc. It
seems that this might make sense for Minneapolis
Unions, the city(of course likely prohibited from
doing so due to state law), the school system, etc. to
champion as a cause.
Of course the most valuable of these benefits
available through employers are often healthcare
benefits and whereas I and many other Minneapolitans
believe we should have universal single payer
healthcare anyway, this may seem like a moot point.
But healthcare is not the only benefit of value
offerred to marrieds that is not offerred to
unmarrieds by most employers and universal heathcare
doesn't exactly look eminent on the statewide or
national scene, so perhaps this relatively new idea is
worth us all exploring a little bit.
After all,I think it's hard to argue against the idea
that unmarried individuals deserve equal pay for work.
David Strand
Loring Park
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site!
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/
REMINDERS:
1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If
you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL
PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list.
2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html
For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn
E-Democracy
Post messages to: mailto:[email protected]
Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
