Business Impact of Anti-Marriage Amendments
Federal or state constitutional amendments banning marriage for same-sex couples could adversely affect businesses. They could:- Make it significantly more difficult for employers to define their own employee benefits programs that enable a company to attract and retain the best possible employees.
- Continue to hinder the administration of fair and equitable benefits programs by requiring companies to take on the responsibility of defining and verifying domestic partner relationships as well as tracking and paying unequal taxes on employee benefits.
- End the availability of domestic partner health insurance benefits.
- Lead to lawsuits from conservative political groups that could attempt to label any benefit for same-sex couples unconstitutional.
- Complicate transfers of employees to states where they have no legal rights.
- Lead to a patchwork of regulations where some states require benefits for same-sex couples and others forbid them or make them difficult to obtain.
