Date: 01 Feb 94 23:24:03 EST
Subject: Domestic Partnership Benefit

Same-Sex Partners Offered Company Benefits at The Seattle Times By Michele
Matassa Flores, The Seattle Times
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News

Feb. 1--The Seattle Times today begins offering health care and other
benefits to partners of gay and lesbian employees, becoming one of the first
newspapers in the country to do so.

Only a handful of local employers, including the city of Seattle, Microsoft
and Starbucks, offer similar benefits. Around the country, the only
newspapers known to offer domestic-partner benefits are The Boston Globe and
The Village Voice in New York.

Under the Times plan, medical and dental coverage and family-leave benefits
will be extended to partners of qualified gay and lesbian employees. The
employees and their partners must have lived together for at least six months
and must share basic living expenses. Employees will have to submit signed
statements to that effect but won't have to submit proof, said Jim Schafer,
Times vice president for industrial relations.

The plan does not cover unmarried heterosexual couples, a policy that some
employees said discriminates against them simply because they choose not to
marry.

Schafer said the decision to cover only gays and lesbians "was the first
issue of controversy and the last" during discussions about the policy.

The final decision, made by Publisher Frank Blethen on a recommendation from
department heads, was to cover those who do not have the option of marrying
to obtain shared benefits.

Blethen said the cost of covering all domestic partners affected the
decision.

"Companies like Microsoft and us - and I'm sure others - are trying to be
very enlightened and progressive, but we're still businesses," he said. "In a
very competitive world, you've still got to figure out how you are going to
make money."

Schafer said companies that cover all unmarried couples instead of just gay
and lesbian couples have five times as many people enroll. If that ratio
applied at the Times, it could cost the company $12,000 to $28,000 per month
to extend the plan beyond gays and lesbians.

The Times plan as is could cost $3,000 to $7,000 a month, based on current
insurance premiums. Schafer said the company expects, at most, 15 to 20 of
its 2,500 employees to sign up.

Generally, private employers offer partnership benefits only to gays and
lesbians, said Loralie VanSluys, a research consultant with Hewitt Associates
in Illinois. That's the case with Microsoft and Starbucks. Public employers,
which often feel more political pressure to offer uniform benefits to
everyone, usually cover all partners, she said. The city of Seattle covers
all partners.

For now, the Times benefits are available only to managers and employees not
covered by union contracts. Times unions are being invited to sign agreements
extending the benefits to their members.

"We welcome the Times' action and think it's long overdue," said Art Joyner,
administrative officer of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, which
represents 785 Times employees. The Guild has proposed domestic- partner
benefits in past contract negotiations, Joyner said.

This agreement came about after a Times association of gay and lesbian
employees presented a proposal to Schafer in October. Schafer said even at
that time, company executives had been considering the issue as they reviewed
provisions of the Family Medical Leave Act.

The Times editorialized against the city of Seattle's decision to offer
domestic-partner benefits four years ago. Blethen said the opinion was based
largely on fears about cost - fears that have since diminished.

He also acknowledged that over the years he has realized he shouldn't judge
people based on their lifestyle.

"I don't promote a gay lifestyle. I wouldn't want my son or daughter to be
gay. But I'm not going to judge," he said. Most importantly, he said, he now
recognizes that in order to attract the brightest work force, employers must
disregard lifestyle issues.

Ana de Give, a circulation department manager who spearheaded the proposal
for the gay and lesbian employees' association, praised the move.

"The Times has always said they're committed to diversity, so this step just
made sense," she said.

Because domestic partnerships are not recognized by the Internal Revenue
Service, the health benefits are taxed on the value of the coverage. For that
reason, de Give predicted, only employees who seriously need coverage will
bother applying.

Throughout the country, coverage for gay and lesbian partners has provoked
critics to predict companies would end up paying expensive claims for AIDS
treatment.

But experience so far has shown domestic partners' claims cost less than
those of other employees. Insurance companies that once levied surcharges
because of their fear of greater risk - including Group Health Cooperative -
have dropped the charges because the fears were not realized.