What Impact Will the Calif. Gay-Marriage Decision Have on Your Business?

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California's Supreme Court decision yesterday overturning the ban on gay marriage was being hailed by LGBT groups as a landmark step in the fight for civil rights.

One of the first to announce plans to marry was TV talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres and actress Portia de Rossi. For more on their plans, click here.

What does this decision mean, especially for companies that have employees in California?

Let's look at what happened in Massachusetts after gay marriage was allowed in 2004 to judge the potential impact on businesses in California.  According to the Human Rights Campaign, almost all Massachusetts employers extended spousal benefits to same-sex couples that obtained marriage licenses after the decision. In accordance with Massachusetts law, the same tax advantages that heterosexual spouses have were also extended to same-sex spouses, decreasing costs for employers' state payroll taxes and employees' state income taxes for health benefits.

What are the other business implications? Once marriage becomes available to same-sex partners in California as it has in Massachusetts, HRC data indicates that the average business will see no noticeable increase in employee-benefit costs. HRC research indicates more than 96 percent of businesses will see no additional costs for healthcare benefits, while the majority of small businesses with less than 20 employees would see no change in costs at all. Large businesses with more than 500 employees would see an average increase of slightly less than $25,000 per year for providing additional health benefits.

"In short, extending marriage to same-sex couples will have a negligible impact on the cost of providing employee benefits. In fact, because same-sex couples make up a small percentage of the U.S. population, the cost of allowing same-sex couples to marry will be no greater for employers than the costs caused by fluctuations in the U.S. heterosexual marriage rates,"  the HRC said in a statement.

Other States

How does this impact court decisions in other states? That will have to play out. A proposed state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage will be on Florida's ballot in November, reports The Associated Press. The Arizona legislature is also considering an amendment to ban gay marriage. Twenty-six other states now ban gay marriage: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. See where your state stands on same-sex marriage.

HRC President Joe Solmonese vowed to fight any attempts in Arizona to put a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage on the ballot. A similar ban was defeated in 2006.

"The Human Rights Campaign is proud that many fair-minded House members fought valiantly to defeat this harmful and unnecessary amendment," he said. "We will continue to work with our legislative allies to defeat this amendment as it moves to the state Senate."

Solmonese hailed the California ruling yesterday as a "historic day," saying, "The California Supreme Court has made clear that same-sex couples in committed relationships and their families deserve the same level of respect afforded to opposite-sex couples. The court did its job by ensuring that the state constitution provides the same rights and protections for everyone."

What Did the Candidates Say?

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign office released the following statement yesterday: "Barack Obama has always believed that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the law, and he will continue to fight for civil unions as President. He respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage."

Sen. John McCain's campaign office also released a statement: "John McCain supports the right of the people of California to recognize marriage as a unique institution sanctioning the union between a man and a woman, just as he did in his home state of Arizona. John McCain doesn't believe judges should be making these decisions."

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