Pennsylvania employers offer a wide variety of employee benefits to their employees, such as retirement plans, health, vision and dental insurance, life and disability insurance, and cafeteria plans. In general, an employer is not required to offer employees such benefits (except, for example, in the case of a collective bargaining agreement requiring such benefits and state-mandated workers’ compensation insurance or prevailing wage jobs). In order to attract and retain a qualified workforce, however, employers must offer competitive benefits.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the part of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 (DOMA) that prohibited employers from recognizing same-sex spouses for purposes of the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act also brings changes to the way employers must administer benefit plans. While the specific changes are beyond the scope of this text, one of the significant changes affects beneficiary designations. Spousal consent by a same-sex spouse may now be necessary where it was not before. Employers may wish to be proactive and send beneficiary designation reminders to employees in order to reduce the chances of processing an invalid beneficiary designation. An illustrative form has been added to the 401(k) plan administration...
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