Domestic Partner and Married Couple Benefits

Partner benefit is a subject matter that is highly taken into consideration by employees when seeking jobs and signing contracts. The subject matter of partner benefits is particularly of great significance to employees when being hired as also at the time of signing contracts. In contemporary times, benefits to partner has become an important aspect not only for success to a company but also for equality. This paper will seek to analyze two companies in the Fortune 500 list which are Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble with regards to the manner in which they provide partner benefits.

How do the requirements for coverage for domestic partners, such as length of the relationship compare with requirements for benefits of married couples?

These two fortune 500 companies provide benefits to partner and make sure that there is equality and impartiality in the distribution of benefits to their employees and partners. For Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble, it is very clearly distinguished with regards to the distribution of benefits to the domestic partners as well as the married couples. For married couples, once legally married, such information can be provided to the company in order for the spouses or partners to receive benefits as this is formal and officially recognized. However, on the other hand, this is different for domestic partners. For Wal-Mart as well as Procter & Gamble, employees who are in a same-sex domestic relationship or opposite-sex domestic relationship have to sign an affidavit indicating that they have been in an exclusive and continuing relationship with such partner for at least the past twelve months and intend on continuing to do so (Sammer and Miller, 2013; May, 2013).

Do companies usually require a waiting period after dissolution of a marriage (divorce) before a new spouse can become eligible for benefits?

The companies do require a certain amount of waiting period once a marriage is dissolved or a domestic partnership ends before a new spouse can come to be considered eligible for any sort of benefits. For both companies, if a domestic partnership ends, then the employees have to notify the companies within a period of 30 days and the preceding domestic partner together with his or her dependents have to be taken out of the benefit plans of the company. The same case applies for a marriage that is dissolved. However, this has to be after the divorce has been fully settled so as to avoid any law suits against the company of not providing benefits. The companies require a waiting period of 6 months before a new spouse is considered to be eligible for any new kind of benefits (Bell, 2012).

What factors, such as legislation, may influence the inclusion of these stipulations?

There are factors such as legislation and new laws instigated that might have an influence on the stipulations mentioned in the preceding discussion. A good example would be the legislation of polygamy in the nation. This would imply that an employee is allowed to have more than one spouse and therefore such stipulations would be influenced as the company would have to consider eligibility for the different spouses and their dependents.

Can any of the terms you defined above be applied to either company based on other information you learned about them? Why, or why not?

Glass walls -- These are social forces that are work related which prevent or hinder women from attaining the highest or top levels of the corporate ladder as well as public responsibility.

Sticky floor -- This is a term that is employed in gender stratification to signify the social forces that hamper or obstruct most of the women in the society globally in lowly paying jobs.