The United States Supreme Court's landmark civil rights ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges made marriage equality the law of the land. However, it may have a surprising impact on same-sex couples who are not married but share domestic partner benefits. Will employers start to rethink the wisdom of offering those benefits?

Todd Solomon, a Chicago-based partner at McDermott Will & Emery, says that the Obergefell ruling may have some "unanticipated consequences" for employers that offer domestic partner benefits. Those consequences depend, in part, on what kind of benefits a particular employer offers.

For some companies, now that couples are free to marry regardless of gender, domestic partner benefits may seem unnecessary. The companies "wrestling most" with the issue are those that offered benefits to same-sex couples out of a sense of fairness, observes Solomon.

"With no legal barriers to same-sex marriage, it's likely that some employers will eliminate [unmarried-partner benefits], which are complex administratively due to tax and other reasons." Solomon notes that employers that do eliminate those benefits could provide a grace period to allow same-sex couples to marry. Read more in the August Illinois Bar Journal.