Despite the task force reports and urging from Boards of Visitors, many public universities have made little progress toward offering
domestic partner benefits.
Fidas and Elliott said they think that other businesses will look at Wal-Mart's decision and realize that it's now become common to offer health benefits to workers'
domestic partners.
At the time of this writing, in the state of Texas only Travis County, which includes the city of Austin, has
domestic partner registration and it is open to both opposite- and same-sex partners (HRC, 2010a).
Domestic partner programs are not the only competitor to marriage, nor are they even the most important.
Employers thus may consider extending employee benefits to same-sex
domestic partners without fear of disqualifying the entire plan.
According to Gorsline, offering
domestic partner benefits falls right in line with the association's mission.
"With regard to
domestic partner benefits, we are guided by die laws," Exxon spokesperson Tom Cirigliano told the Monitor.
Over the past three or four years, the number of public and private employers offering
domestic partner benefits has increased from about 200 to over 600 in 1997.(6) Some of the reasons cited by employers for offering such benefits include employee recruitment and retention, and the employer's own nondiscrimination policy.(7)
Once unheard of, situations like this are becoming more common as increasing numbers of public and private organizations are making
domestic partner benefits available to employees to address perceived inequities among their employee populations -- that is, benefits offered to their married versus non-married employees.
For couples who were already
domestic partners financially, Brian Martz, of Wells Fargo Financial Advisors, offers some advice.