Ripple effect: assessing the HR impacts of same-sex marriage.

• Author: Madison, Rachel
• Position: Business Trends

Same-sex marriage has been a topic of much debate across Utah in recent years, but a decision to forego reviewing the case that brought an end to Utah's anti-marriage constitutional amendment by the United States Supreme Court in early October 2014 has essentially ended that debate--and now companies are trying to figure out what the new normal means for them.

Employers must now treat same-sex spouses the same way they treat opposite-sex spouses in terms of legal rights and access to benefits. While some companies have already been providing domestic partner benefits for months or even years, others have had to work diligently to navigate the waters of a changing benefits arena.

Navigating Employee Benefits

After Windsor v. United States in June 2013 and before the Supreme Courts denial of review in October 2014, the ball was already rolling on employee benefits issues, says Bob Coursey, an employment law attorney and human resource adviser at Employers Council. "Different agencies had already changed their rules to treat couples in same-sex relationships as married, but based on what happened in October, there will be a lot more same-sex marriages in Utah. My best advice is that Utah employers should talk to employee benefits lawyers or brokers about changes they need to make to benefits plans, because if they're going to do it, now is the time."

Michael O'Brien, employment attorney at Jones Waldo and Utah State SHRM legal director, says some providers allowed immediate access to plans for same-sex spouses as new dependents if done within a reasonable time following the Supreme Court ruling, but others chose to wait until open enrollment periods to allow employees to add same-sex spouses. "This ruling creates a new wrinkle for your open enrollment periods," he says. "Make sure you work carefully with benefits providers to properly consider the new development."

While Utah now has to recognize same-sex marriage and do things like issue marriage licenses, there is still "quite a bit of guidance that is needed," says John Ludlum, an employee benefits attorney at Holland & Hart. "As an example, a notice came out allowing same sex-couples to file joint tax returns in 2013, but it only applied to 2013," he says, adding that as of mid-November, updated guidance for 2014 had still not been released.

"I have seen more questions from employers about how this affects their benefits plans. They're trying very hard to comply with the rules," says...