I am sure you have heard of the term “Common Law” marriage before, perhaps when you moved in with a significant other before you tied the knot or somewhere on the news. A Common Law marriage, in its simplest term, is a legally valid marriage that is without state registration or performed outside of a religious ceremony. Common Law marriages grew when institutional marriages were too hard to administer or recognize and before religion-sanctioned marriage flourished, and in the 16th century Common Law marriages were a very common occurrence. However, once the state and church became more involved with marriages, Common Law marriages started becoming a thing of the past; most countries and states in America no longer grant common law marriages. For California, however, it isn’t so “black and white”.
California – We recognize all Marriages
California stopped administering common law marriages in 1895, however, California recognizes common law marriages that were validly performed in another state. An example of this would be if a couple from state A established their common law marriage and then moved to state B. State B does not administer or establish common law marriages, however, it does consider the couple from state A as legally married. Knowing this, a couple that is residing in California that is legally married under a common law marriage must be recognized as a married couple by the employer, therefore, they are granted similar benefits as a married couple would receive, and this includes kin care laws as well as health benefits and COBRA.
Common Law Marriage – How to Determine its Validity?
Common Law Marriage isn’t very easy to validate because there is no legal documentation of the marriage. For this reason, if an employee states they are in a common law marriage, the employer can research and find out if the state the employee used to reside in administers common law marriage (or when it last administered it) and what actions the state takes to consider a couple married under common law. Two resources an employer can use to verify this information are www.nolo.com and www.usmarriagelaws.com.
Discrimination – It is all or Nothing
Workplace discrimination can result from treating common law married couples different than traditionally married couples. If, for instance, you ask an employee to provide evidence of their common law marriage, then you must request evidence from all married (traditional or common law marriages) couples at the workplace as well.
Thank you for reading, and have a great day!
*Please consult a specialist for any questions regarding common law marriages
Source:
Peterson, Shane, ed. “Common Law Marriages, Uncommon Problems.” California Employer Update: Your Guide to Trends and Court Decisions Impacting the California Workplace (May 2015): 6-9. Print.
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