Syracuse University’s $1,000 Cash Payout to Gay Staffers With Partner Health Benefits

After debating for months how to make providing health care benefits for the same-sex domestic partners of employees less of a tax burden — federal law, which doesn’t tax married couple’s shared benefits, makes no concession for gay couples, whose relationships it doesn’t recognize — Syracuse University has found a solution: It will give $1,000 to each gay staffer participating in the program.

That is: Not only does the school offer gay employees shared partner benefits, it’s paying for the cost of the federal government’s discrimination. The move is described as the first of its kind in higher ed.