Carpenter Christopher S, Harrell Benjamin J, Hegland Thomas A
Vanderbilt University and NBER.
Trinity University.
Am J Health Econ. 2024 Spring;10(2):215-236. doi: 10.1086/728078. Epub 2024 Apr 16.
We provide the first evidence on employer health insurance decisions regarding same-sex domestic partner (SSDP) benefits before and after nationwide legal same-sex marriage (SSM) was adopted in the United States by , 576 U.S. 644 (2015). Using rich microdata on over 250,000 establishments from the 2013-19 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Insurance Component (MEPS-IC), we show that private employers were 7 percentage points more likely to offer SSDP benefits than different-sex domestic partner (DSDP) benefits prior to 2015. After , however, the likelihood of SSDP benefits among these employers fell significantly, back to the DSDP benefit offer rate. Novel linkages between MEPS-IC establishments and Internal Revenue Service data allow us to show that these reductions were driven by establishments whose parent firms were more exposed to legal SSM prior to owing to the geographic distribution of their workforce. Our results suggest the importance of within-firm pay equity norms as a reason for SSDP benefits prior to nationwide SSM and provide the first direct evidence that legal access to SSM was associated with significantly reduced SSDP benefit offer rates.
我们提供了关于在美国通过全国性合法同性婚姻（SSM）（美国最高法院，576 U.S. 644 [2015]）前后雇主在同性伴侣（SSDP）福利方面健康保险决策的首个证据。利用2013 - 19年医疗支出面板调查 - 保险部分（MEPS - IC）中超过25万家机构的丰富微观数据，我们发现，2015年之前，私人雇主提供SSDP福利的可能性比提供异性伴侣（DSDP）福利的可能性高7个百分点。然而，在那之后，这些雇主中提供SSDP福利的可能性大幅下降，回到了提供DSDP福利的比率。MEPS - IC机构与美国国税局数据之间的新联系使我们能够表明，这些减少是由那些母公司由于其劳动力的地理分布在之前更易受合法SSM影响的机构推动的。我们的结果表明，在全国性SSM之前，公司内部薪酬公平规范作为提供SSDP福利的一个原因的重要性，并提供了首个直接证据，即合法获得SSM与大幅降低SSDP福利提供率相关。
