Businesses face benefit, HR policy changes after same sex marriage ruling

John Woodham works for a company that provides benefit and human resources services to more than 300 companies in 38 states. His world got a lot busier following Friday’s (June 26) ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that legalizes same sex marriage in all states.

In a 5-4 vote, Justices ruled that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment topped state and federal law on the issue of same sex marriage.

The Court has often ruled that marriage is a fundamental right a state cannot restrict without real justification. It has said that prisoners have the right to marry, and so do people too poor to make child support payments. In 1967, the court struck down state bans on interracial marriage. Prior to Friday, gay marriage was legal in 36 states.

Woodham, an HR specialist with Van Buren-based SPMI, said the company is working with their clients to “get ahead of all the issues” with respect to employee benefits and HR policies.

“It is causing us to ensure that all of our benefit policies are compliant now. Of course, a lot of benefit policies were seeing the trend, and were already compliant to some degree to include domestic partners,” he said.

Much of the work is focused on reviewing policies and educating themselves and their clients on needed changes to ensure “no unintentional action is being taken.”

“One of those … is that maybe some of the jokes they were telling as late as last week might now get them in trouble,” Woodham said.

He said there has been some pushback by employers on the issue. However, Woodham has seen several benefit and HR policy changes in more than 20 years, and knows there are times SPMI agents are “really, really aggressive” with some business owners and managers to ensure they comply with the law.

“We do get some pushback, but we do our best to educate them and provide some information and say, ‘This is the law, and you may not personally agree with it … but it is the law now,’” Woodham explained.

The Little Rock-based law firm of Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon & Galchus also is advising employers to respond to the “sweeping impact” of the Court’s ruling. In a press release, the company identified four key changes employers must address:
• Provide leave to same-sex spouses if covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act;
• Review existing benefit plan documents to ensure that benefits are fully available to same-sex spouses;
• Provide COBRA benefits to same-sex spouses; and
• Update federal and state employee taxation information.

“We recommend a complete audit of your company's policies and practices to determine how your company can quickly come into compliance with the law,” noted the law firm’s press release.

Little Rock-based Stephens Insurance also sent out a note outlining other “practical implications” of the Court ruling, to include working with accountants to accurately post tax withholdings. The Stephens note suggested that companies adopt a broad interpretation when revising benefit and HR policies.

“Although the ruling does not explicitly extend to same-sex marriages performed out of the country, other federal regulations on the issue would indicate that employers should also recognize same-sex marriages performed validly wherever the marriage took place. It is likely that the Department of Labor and other agencies will issue guidance on this issue, but employers should be prepared to change spousal policies excluding same- sex marriages as soon as practicably possible.”