Fortune 500 Companies Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Fortune 500 Companies - Research Paper Example Approximately two-thirds of the Fortune 500 companies are currently involved in offering partnership benefits. In order to understand this aspect better, it is important that concern is drawn as to what entails domestic partnership benefits (Rosenbaum, 1967). Ideally, domestic partnership benefits are those that an employer decides to give to an employee’s unmarried partner, regardless of the gender. Despite the numerous companies that are currently involved in offering domestic partnership benefits, this paper will only analyze Wal-Mart stores and Mayo Clinic. Offering of partner benefits, follows the passing of ordinance in 1996, with an essential requirement that companies involved in business with the city are mandated to offer equal benefits to their employees’ partners without any attribute towards gender orientation. The benefits offered by these companies are mainly in healthcare. For an employee’s partner to access the partner benefits, there are certain requirements that such an employee partner must acquire. Different companies have different requirements on who is eligible to access the benefits. For Wal-Mart stores, partners are only covered when they are legally married and never when legally separated (US News, 2013). Regardless of the gender of the partner, such an individual is only eligible for the benefits if the two are in a relationship in an equivalent of marriage for 12 months, and with an intention of sharing the particular household forever. It is also important that the partner to benefit from the offer must be 18 years old and above. Mayo Clinic currently has not set a particular deadline for which the partners in a relationship can start accessing the benefits (Berry and Seltman, 2008). However, in the case of same-sex partners, then the two have to marry in the case of Mayo Clinic, considering that same-sex marriages have been