Imagine this conversation with your employer:
YOU. Hey, it looks like my paycheck is $25 short.
EMPLOYER. Oh, no, that’s for Kitten Day.
YOU. I’m sorry?
EMPLOYER. Once a month, we bring in kittens for everyone in the office to cuddle for a day. Studies show that it reduces stress. It’s adorable.
YOU. I’m sure it is, but you’re paying for it out of my paycheck.
EMPLOYER. Yes. Kitten Day is part of your overall compensation package.
A “total compensation package” is the full value of all remuneration given to an employee in exchange for their work for their company. This includes their regular paycheck, but it can also include bonuses, stock and/or stock options, retirement contributions, and, for many workers in the U.S., health insurance. A good package can, for instance, offset a lower base salary, because the employee’s work will still be compensated, even if it doesn’t show up in their paycheck.
In short: The money spent on health insurance is the employee’s own. It was earned by their hard work, and it only passes through their employer’s hands on the way to the health insurance company. It’s not a favor or a gift provided by a benevolent employer — it is compensation for work performed.
Now imagine this conversation:
EMPLOYER. Yes. Kitten Day is part of your overall compensation package.
YOU. Yeah, but I could really use that money for things that actually benefit me. Like mental health care, for instance.
EMPLOYER. Studies show —
YOU. Real mental health care.
EMPLOYER. Well, the owner of the company belongs to a religion that believes that psychological and psychiatric care are of the devil, so all we’re willing to offer is Kitten Day.
YOU. But the Affordable Care Act requires —
EMPLOYER. It’s a religious belief, and that changes everything.
YOU. But you’re spending my money on —
EMPLOYER. Just take a kitten and calm your tits.
If it sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is. For your employer to compensate you for your work with a monthly kitten is as ridiculous as compensating you with a health insurance plan that doesn’t cover your health needs. (And that’s even before you get to the point that a religious exemption on the basis that kittens are God’s Xanax is as ridiculous as an exemption on the basis that hormonal contraceptives kill babies.)
So no, I don’t expect my employer to pay for my birth control. No, this isn’t about my boss subsidizing my sex life. And no, it’s not reasonable for me to hold an aspirin between my knees and call it a contraceptive. It isn’t about an employer paying for birth control any more than it would be about an employer paying for someone’s insulin. This is about an employer imposing their religious beliefs on their employees, taking those employees’ earnings and blowing them on inadequate health care in direct opposition to federal law. And if this were any health care issue other than birth control, people would be marching with bullhorns, not calling women greedy sluts for wanting the quality health care they’re owed.