California Employers Required to Grant Sick Leave for Domestic Partners 11-01-01
- By Ann F. Kiernan and Rita Risser

On October 14, 2001, California Governor Gray Davis signed into law a measure that substantially expands the benefits and rights available to domestic partners. The new law, which goes into effect on January 1, 2002, adds about a dozen provisions to existing law.

Employers who offer sick leave are now required to allow employees to use their sick leave to care for their domestic partners, or for the children of their domestic partners.

In order to be covered by the law, domestic partners must register with the State. According to the Los Angles Times, there are approximately 400,000 same-sex couples in California, and about 7,600 have registered as domestic partners. The domestic partnership law covers not only same-sex couples, but also heterosexual couples over 62 years old.

In the past few years, recognition of domestic partners has expanded widely throughout the corporate and government worlds. According to the 2001 "The State of the Workplace for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Americans" report published by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, nearly 4,300 employers across the country provide domestic partner benefits for their employees, including more than half of the Fortune 50 companies, and more than half of high-tech firms. Industry leaders that offer domestic partnership benefits include computer powerhouses Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and Dell; automakers General Motors and Ford; telecommunications companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Lucent, Bell South and SBC; and health-care giants McKesson HBOC, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Quest Diagnostics.

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