Analysis: Workers Increasingly Have Access to Same-Sex Spousal Benefits 

While workplace health benefits for married same-sex spouses are becoming more common, new data from KFF’s 2018 Employer Health Benefits Survey shows they still lag behind benefits available to opposite sex-spouses.

In 2018, nearly two-thirds (63%) of employers offering health insurance coverage to opposite-sex spouses also provided coverage to same-sex spouses – up significantly from 2016, when fewer than half (43%) did. Few (6%) say they do not offer same-sex spousal benefits, while others, mostly small employers, say they have not encountered such a situation.

Larger employers are more likely than smaller ones to offer same-sex spousal benefits. As a result, a large majority (88%) of covered workers are at firms that provide such benefits. Relatively few (6%) are at firms that do not offer same-sex spousal benefits.

The analysis examines trends in same-sex spousal benefits following the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.