Workplace

• The Fiscal Impact of Extending Federal Benefits to Same-Sex Domestic Partners

  By Naomi G. Goldberg, Christopher Ramos, M.V. Lee Badgett
  September 2008
  

  This report finds that offering health and other benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees would add $41 million to the federal budget in the first year of coverage. Over ten years the report predicts the budgetary cost will be $675 million, a small percentage of the federal budget.

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• Unequal Taxes on Equal Benefits: The Taxation of Domestic Partner Benefits

  By M.V. Lee Badgett
  December 2007
  

  Public policy encourages employers to provide health insurance by exempting that form of compensation from taxation. As a result, married workers who get family health insurance benefits get a double benefit—they get health insurance coverage for their spouses and children and are not taxed on the value of that coverage. Employers typically do not provide health insurance coverage for domestic partners of their workers; and even when partners are covered, the partner’s coverage is taxed as income to the employee. This report estimates the financial impact of this extra tax on employees and employers.

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• Testimony on HR 2015, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)

  By M.V. Lee Badgett
  September 2007
  

  This testimony presented by M.V. Lee Badgett on ENDA, a federal bill that would outlaw employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, summarizes decades of social science research demonstrating that employment discrimination against LGBT people occurs in workplaces across the country. Other research presented shows that non-discrimination laws appear to help end discrimination, and that discrimination can hurt businesses.

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• Bias in the Workplace: Consistent Evidence of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination

  By M.V. Lee Badgett, Holning Lau, Brad Sears, Deborah Ho
  June 2007
  

  This report reviews more than 50 studies over the last decade and demonstrates a disturbing and consistent pattern: sexual orientation-based and gender identity discrimination is a common occurrence in many workplaces across the country.

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• The Effect of Marriage Equality and Domestic Partnership on Business and the Economy

  By M.V. Lee Badgett, Gary J. Gates
  October 2006
  

  This report finds that employer policies that treat employees with same-sex partners or spouses equally would improve the health and well-being of their families, which results in gains for both the employee and his or her family as well as to the employer.

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• Separate and Unequal: The Effect of Unequal Access to Employment-Based Health Insurance on Same-Sex and Different-Sex Unmarried Couples

  By M.V. Lee Badgett, Michael A. Ash
  October 2006
  

  This study finds that unmarried couples are significantly less likely to have health insurance than married people. The number of uninsured people in unmarried couples would drop significantly if employers offered health insurance to domestic partners. However, employers would experience only a small increase in health insurance enrollment and costs if they offered partner coverage.

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• Do Gay Rights Laws Matter? An Empirical Assessment

  By William B. Rubenstein
  December 2001
  

  This study addresses two contradictory arguments often used to support the position that a federal law prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation should not be passed. First, that a sexual orientation non-discrimination law would lead to a “flood” of discrimination complaints that would overwhelm state enforcement agencies and courts. Second, that there are so few cases of sexual orientation discrimination that the law is unnecessary.

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