Maryland State or Local Government
Health benefits
1. I work for a Maryland state or local government which offers health benefits to spouses. Does my employer have to allow me to cover my spouse under the health plan?
Yes. Federal laws do not override state law with respect to plans of state and local governments. And Maryland state and local governments are prohibited from discriminating based on sexual orientation. Thus, a governmental health plan that covers spouses will have to include same-sex spouses.
2. What are the tax consequences if my same-sex spouse is covered under my health plan?
If your spouse is a dependent (lives with you, receives at least one-half of his or her financial support from you, and meets certain other tests), your employer’s contributions to provide spousal health coverage will not be taxable to you. If your employer allows for pretax contributions to pay for spousal health insurance, your contributions to cover a dependent spouse will be pretax.
If your spouse is not a dependent, the cost of your spouse’s coverage will be taxable to you. Any employee-paid premiums for your spouse’s health insurance would then be made on an after-tax basis, even if other health insurance premiums are made on a pretax basis.
3. What rights does my spouse have if he or she loses coverage under my health plan?
If you lose your job or become divorced, your spouse could continue health coverage at his or her own expense for up to twelve months under Maryland’s health care continuation law. Longer coverage might be available if your employer’s plan provides for it. It is unclear whether general state nondiscrimination law could be applied to allow a same-sex spouse the longer continuation period that would apply to an opposite-sex spouse under federal law.
Retirement Plans
4. Is my employer required to provide my spouse with rights under my retirement plan?
Unlike a plan of a private employer, a governmental retirement plan is not required to provide any rights to spouses. Nevertheless, many governmental plans in practice provide such rights. If a particular retirement plan of a Maryland state or local government provides rights to spouses generally, it will need to provide them to same-sex spouses.
5. If I name my same-sex spouse as the beneficiary of my retirement plan, what are the tax consequences?
Taxes on a distribution can be deferred by rolling the money over to another plan. Same-sex spouses are more limited than opposite-sex spouses both in the types of plans to which a rollover can be made and in the time at which distributions must be taken.
Other Governmental Agencies
6. What if I work for state or local government in a state other than Maryland?
Your employee benefits rights will be determined by the law of the state where you work and the terms of the plans that cover you. DC, for example, also recognizes same-sex marriage, so your marriage would be recognized there. However, those states (such as Virginia) that do not recognize same-sex marriage for their own residents are also not required to recognize the same-sex marriages of residents of other states.
7. What if I work for the federal government?
The federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage. Thus, your spouse could not participate in any federal government plan as a spouse.
Religious Organizations
8. Will my same-sex spouse have rights under an employee benefit plan of a religious organization?
That will generally depend entirely on the terms of the plan. Churches and similar religious organizations are exempt from many federal employee benefit laws. They are also exempt from Maryland law prohibiting discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation. Thus, even if you are legally married under Maryland law, a church could provide benefits for opposite-sex spouses and refuse to provide them for you.
All Employers
9. What if my spouse gets sick, and I need to stay home to care for him or her?
Federal rules allowing employees of covered employers to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave to care for an ill spouse do not apply to a same-sex spouse. However, unlike in other areas of employee benefits, the provisions of federal law do not preclude state laws from providing greater benefits than federal law.
Maryland law requires that an employee of a covered employer be allowed to use any already earned paid leave to care for an ill spouse. A same-sex spouse would be recognized for purposes of the Maryland law. However, the Maryland law does not by its terms allow you to take unpaid leave to care for an ill spouse.
If your employer provides unpaid leave to an opposite-sex spouse under federal law, must it provide the same rights to a same-sex spouse under Maryland nondiscrimination law? The answer is unclear.
