Some of the 300 Google Employees Participating in San Francisco Pride Congratulations to GLBT Employees of Google!
According to a New York Times article:
On Thursday, Google is going to begin covering a cost that gay and lesbian employees must pay when their partners receive domestic partner health benefits, largely to compensate them for an extra tax that heterosexual married couples do not pay. The increase will be retroactive to the beginning of the year.
The company began to look at the disparity after a gay employee pointed it out, said Laszlo Bock, Google's vice president for people operations (also known as human resources). Google, by the way, says its benefits team seriously considers any suggestions on how to expand its coverage.
"We said, 'You're right, that doesn't seem fair,' so we looked into it," Mr. Bock said. "From that initial suggestion, we said, let's take a look at all the benefits we offer and see if we are being truly fair across the board." As a result, the company also decided to make a few other changes that would help gay employees, including eliminating a one-year waiting period before qualifying for infertility benefits and including domestic partners in its family leave policy.
According to a New York Times article:
On Thursday, Google is going to begin covering a cost that gay and lesbian employees must pay when their partners receive domestic partner health benefits, largely to compensate them for an extra tax that heterosexual married couples do not pay. The increase will be retroactive to the beginning of the year.
The company began to look at the disparity after a gay employee pointed it out, said Laszlo Bock, Google's vice president for people operations (also known as human resources). Google, by the way, says its benefits team seriously considers any suggestions on how to expand its coverage.
"We said, 'You're right, that doesn't seem fair,' so we looked into it," Mr. Bock said. "From that initial suggestion, we said, let's take a look at all the benefits we offer and see if we are being truly fair across the board." As a result, the company also decided to make a few other changes that would help gay employees, including eliminating a one-year waiting period before qualifying for infertility benefits and including domestic partners in its family leave policy.
*******
The world and the world of work are changing... I have been fortunate enough to work for three companies in the last decade who offer benefits to same-sex partners. I remember how galling it felt to realize that because IRS regulation would not allow such benefits to be pre-tax for me and deductible for my employer, they became imputed income subject to tax. Paying that additional tax felt like an onerous burden designed to remind me that I was a second-class citizen.
The good people at Google have taken a bold and decidedly costly step to ensure equality in their ranks and make their company attractive to the best talent in the world including GLBT folks... I am impressed.
The good people at Google have taken a bold and decidedly costly step to ensure equality in their ranks and make their company attractive to the best talent in the world including GLBT folks... I am impressed.
"Fear Eats the Soul"
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments may be moderated and will appear within 12 hours if approved.