©2023 Seyfarth Shaw LLP www.seyfarth.com 2023 Cal-Peculiarities | 319 8. Employee Benefits 8.1 Domestic Partners California helped lead the national trend toward recognizing unmarried domestic partners as the equivalent of married couples for various purposes. Domestic partners in California—two adults who have chosen to share each other’s lives in an intimate, committed relationship of mutual care—may file a Declaration of Domestic Partnership with the Secretary of State. As of 2020, all couples who are eligible to be married can register as domestic partners, regardless of age or sexual orientation.1 Thus, opposite-sex couples can now register as domestic partners, even if neither is over age 62.2 Domestic partners enjoy the same rights, protections, and benefits as California spouses, including any right to use sick time, take CFRA-protected leave, or receive paid family leave to care for a spouse with a qualifying health issue.3 Couples may register their Domestic Partnership if both partners are at least age 18.4 California grants registered partners workplace rights with respect to unemployment insurance (where one partner quit a job to relocate because of the employment of the other partner)5 and kin care leave, allowing employees to use paid sick leave to care for an ill domestic partner.6 Registered domestic partners can sue for marital status discrimination under the Unruh Civil Rights Act (for discrimination in public accommodations), and there is no reason to suppose that California courts would not hold that domestic partners can sue for marital status discrimination in employment discrimination lawsuits.7 8.1.1 Same rights and responsibilities as spouses Under the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003, registered domestic partners have virtually all the rights and responsibilities afforded to married spouses.8 California employers must give domestic partners the same legal treatment as spouses in most areas of state law. One probable effect is that the California Family Rights Act, which grants leave to an employee to care for a sick spouse, also requires leave for an employee to care for a sick registered domestic partner.9 8.1.2 Insurance benefits Employers must offer dependent care coverage for domestic partners under the same terms and conditions as spousal coverage, with the insurance premium for this coverage exempt from taxable wages under state law.10 The Insurance Equality Act provides that California group health insurance policies shall be deemed to provide coverage for registered domestic partners that is equal to the coverage provided to a spouse of an employee, insured, or policyholder.11 Every health care service plan contract and every health insurance policy that is marketed, sold, or issued to a California resident must extend identical coverage to same sex and opposite sex spouses and domestic partners.12 Further, it can be a crime in California to discriminate between the coverage: for (a) heterosexual spouses or domestic partners; and (b) partners in same-sex relationships.13 California also mandates equality in health coverage for same sex and opposite sex couples (whether domestic partners or spouses) for every group health care service plan contract (HMO) and every group health insurance policy that is marketed, issued, or delivered to a California resident.14
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