Sexual Orienation Task Force Report

Findings
Hiring, Career Advancement, Compensation/Benefits
Many lesbian and gay lawyers receive a less valuable compensation package than their heterosexual counterparts because they are not accorded the same family health insurance and other benefits available to heterosexual lawyers

Many gay men and lesbians have a same-sex partner with whom they have a loving and committed relationship, but whom they are not permitted by law to marry. The responses to both the Lawyer Survey and the Employer Survey show a widespread pattern of differential treatment regarding employment benefits, as between such gay and lesbian lawyers with same-sex partners, on the one hand, and heterosexual lawyers with spouses, on the other. In most legal workplaces, lesbian and gay lawyers with domestic partners are not accorded family benefits comparable to those provided to their heterosexual counterparts with spouses. This of course means that the value of their compensation is less.
For example, although the vast majority of employers provide health insurance benefits for the spouses of heterosexual lawyers, very few provide such coverage for the partners of their lesbian and gay lawyers.17 Of the 117 respondents to the Employer Survey, 93 reported that they provide health insurance coverage for the spouses of heterosexual lawyers, while only 13 provide this coverage for the partners of their gay and lesbian lawyers. (Employer Survey, Table H.) Similar disparities were reported by the respondents to the Lawyer Survey. (Lawyer Survey, Table 17.)
Likewise, a substantial majority of the respondents' employers are reported to provide family leave to a married heterosexual lawyer when that lawyer's spouse has a serious health condition. However, far fewer than half of these employers are reported by the lawyer respondents to provide this benefit to lesbian and gay lawyers with a seriously ill partner. (Lawyer Survey, Table 17.) The figures provided by the employer respondents are similar. (Employer Survey, Table H.)
Approximately three-quarters of the lawyer respondents in each group reported that their employers provide leave to a lawyer whose spouse has given birth to or adopted a child. By contrast, in those same workplaces, only about a fifth of each group reported that such leave is available to a lesbian or gay lawyer whose partner has given birth to or adopted a child. (Lawyer Survey, Table 17.) Similarly, approximately three-quarters of the employer respondents reported that they provide leave to a lawyer whose spouse has given birth to or adopted a child, but only slightly more than half of those employers reported that they give such leave to lesbian and gay lawyers in similar circumstances. (Employer Survey, Table H.)
The data from both Surveys indicate that most employers similarly differentiate in the employment benefits they provide, at least as regards health insurance, between heterosexual lawyers with spouses and heterosexual lawyers with unmarried partners. (Lawyer Survey, Table 17; Employer Survey, Table H.)18 However, the impact of such differential treatment is likely to be sharper for gay and lesbian lawyers with partners than for heterosexual ones, since the latter have the option of marrying and thus becoming eligible for such benefits, while the former do not have that option. 19

It should be noted that many of the individual respondents answered “don't know/not sure” to the questions pertaining to their respective employer's human resource policies. (Lawyer Survey, Table 17.)

Neither of the Surveys asked whether employers provided medical leave or parental leave with respect to unmarried partners of heterosexual lawyers. It seems likely, however, that the pattern of differential treatment would be essentially the same as it is with health insurance.

It appears that most employers that provide health insurance coverage for unmarried partners do so regardless of whether the partners are of the same sex or the opposite sex. (Lawyer Survey, Table 17; Employer Survey, Table H.)