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Summary:
With the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts,1 many have
questioned how the legalization of such marriages at the state level may affect the
eligibility for and payment of federal Social Security benefits and private pensions.
Social Security benefits are currently paid to the spouses of disabled, retired, or deceased
workers entitled to Social Security. However, under current law, same-sex spouses are
not eligible for Social Security benefits because they are unable to meet the genderbased
definitions of "wife" and "husband" in the Social Security Act and the genderbased
definition of "marriage" established by the Defense of Marriage Act. Federal
employee pensions and private-sector pensions regulated by the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act (ERISA) are required to provide certain benefits to the spouse of
a participant in the event of the participant?s death. Under the Defense of Marriage Act,
both federal pensions and private-sector pensions regulated by ERISA are required to
define a spouse only as "a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife." This
report will be updated as legislative activity warrants.
