Domestic Partner Benefits Status

Extending health and other benefits to the same-sex partners of LGBT faculty and staff members within the University System of Maryland has been a concern for more than a decade, especially at the University of Maryland.

Such benefits make up a substantial portion of employee compensation, and both straight and LGBT employees who are not married to their partners get the short end of the stick, receiving unequal pay for equal work.

The problem is especially poignant for LGBT employees because they are not allowed to marry, and so they are essentially barred from attaining the status of having a “spouse,” the term which dictates many of the benefit policies within the USM.

In April of this year, I reported for The Diamondback that the University of Maryland had requested that the USM Board of Regents allow it to extend domestic partner benefits to its employees with its own funding. That story can be found here.

However, the Board of Regents has yet to address the request, or the issue at large, since then.

Wanting an update on the status, I emailed USM spokesman John Buettner, who replied with the following:

"Recently, Maryland's Department of Budget Management began a feasibility study on extending domestic partner benefits to state employees. It is preparing this for the Governor and the General Assembly, as it will require legislation to enact changes to the rules affecting state employees. The Chancellor [Brit Kirwan] has expressed his support for providing a domestic partner benefit plan to USM faculty and staff, and he has agreed to refer it to the Board of Regents for consideration once USM gets the information generated by this report and direction from the Governor and General Assembly."

So, that is where we stand for now. I think if state employees are granted domestic partner benefits, the Board of Regents will face much higher levels of pressure to extend the same benefits to USM employees.

For more information on what is happening with the state employees union – which employees of the USM are not part of – click here.