It’s been five years since the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, and they are still forced to fight for the programs and benefits that straight couples have instant access to. Due to the red tape that seems to exist only to annoy people, many gay and lesbian higher education workers have been forced to opt out of the state retirement system.
Take the Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) offered in Massachusetts, this is similar to a 401K plan and it was established in 1994 for any state higher education employees who felt they could manage their own retirement investments. Tons of the gay and lesbian educators as well as other university staff, prior to the 2004 legalization of same-sex marriage, opted out of the traditional state plan, which by the way offers spousal benefits only to legally married couples.
That brings is to today, lots of those gay and lesbian faculty and staff are legally married and now they want back into the state retirement system. They want to be able to have access to the same benefits that straight couples have.
Marie Canaves, 55, a Cape Cod Community College professor of art history, had opted out of the state system in 1998 with hopes that the ORP would help her provide for her chronically ill partner.
“At that time, there was no legislation in the state of Massachusetts protecting same-sex couples. It was impossible for me to leave my state pension to my life partner,” she said. “In order to leave her the money for which I had worked so hard, and which, being chronically ill she needed so desperately, the only choice I had was to sign onto the ORP.”
Canaves’s partner died last year. Unfortunately, Canaves has $114,000 of her retirement savings. What that means is that if she were to retire now she would get approximately $4,400 a year. Needless to say that is not enough to get by.
If she were part of the state system she would have a lot more money for her retirement. She would have gotten at least $20,000 a year.
The bottom line, and the problem itself, is that these people were not given all of the information they would need to make the right choice for them and their lives. May educators were pressured into choosing the ORP.
Canaves was not alone, there were plenty of other people who found themselves in the same position. There is a solution out there though and it hasn’t gone through yet. Sen. Marc Pacheco has come up with a proposal that would allow higher education employees a one-time opportunity to buy back into the state system.
Jack Flanagan, a lobbyist for the Massachusetts Teachers Association, said many employees, upon entering state service, were told to choose between the plans within 90 days without the benefit of a side-by-side comparison. Faculty members, he said, are often making important decisions about their courses in the first 90 days of employment and may not be able to make fully informed retirement decisions.
MassEquality executive director Scott Gortikov believes that this is only one in a long line of barriers for same sex couples.
“Passage of this bill is fair and just, and failure to pass it would be comparatively inequitable,” he said.
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