IBM, Raytheon start trend in dropping domestic partnership benefits?

This isn’t too much of a surprise. Now that same-sex marriage is legal in New York (as of July 25), two large companies, IBM and Raytheon, are dropping their domestic partnership benefits. If lgbt couples want to keep them, they’ll have to get married. While this seems unfair on one hand (not all domestic partners are same-sex!), a case can be made from a corporate perspective: domestic partnership benefits were started because we could not get married. Take the sidebar survey and let us know what you think! From Fins Technology:

The legalization of gay marriage in New York means some couples may have to walk down the aisle for the most practical of reasons: to hold onto their partners’ health insurance and other benefits. At least two major employers — Raytheon Co. and International Business Machines Corp. — say New York employees in same-sex relationships now will have to get married if they want to qualify for the benefits. The companies appear to be the exceptions among big corporate employers.
Most have continued to offer domestic-partner benefits — health care being the most common — to workers with same-sex partners in the states that recognize gay marriage. Currently, 37% of Fortune 1000 companies provide domestic-partner benefits, according to a 2011 study by Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA’s School of Law that researches sexual orientation in law and public policy.]]>