From: Alan Hamilton Subject: Seattle Times Domestic Partnership Policy Date: Tue, 08 Mar 1994 10:52:00 -0500 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.