Levi Strauss OKs Benefits for Unmarried Partners : Policy: In an effort to be ‘non-discriminatory,’ employees’ live-in lovers will get health coverage.

Levi Strauss & Co., the world’s largest clothing manufacturer, announced that it will offer health benefits to unmarried partners of its U.S. employees.

The policy, which takes effect June 1, applies to any worker who lives with and shares finances with an unmarried lover.

“We want a non-discriminatory workplace,” said Reese Smith, Levi’s director of employee benefits. “And when we looked at our policies prohibiting discrimination for race, sex, origin, or marital status, we realized our own practices were not in compliance with our policy.”

The decision makes Levi’s the largest company in the United States to extend benefits to partners of unmarried employees. It applies to all of its 23,000 U.S. workers, but is expected to be used primarily by homosexual couples, who are forbidden to marry under civil law.

More and more lawmakers across the country are rewriting ordinances to accommodate unmarried couples. San Francisco, Berkeley, Santa Cruz and Seattle allow municipal workers to add unmarried lovers to health plans.

But business has actually led the way on the issue. The Village Voice, the American Psychological Assn. and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream adopted similar policies in the mid-’80s.

The Montefiore Medical Center in New York City and the computer software giant Lotus Development Corp. outside Boston granted health benefits to unmarried lovers last year.

Reese said he does not know how many Levi’s workers will take advantage of the new policy. He would not estimate the company’s cost.

A Levi’s-commissioned study by benefits consultant Hewitt Associates found that only 750 employees nationwide have signed partners up for benefits, out of 50,000 who were offered the option.

Under the Levi’s policy, unmarried couples will be eligible for the same benefits as married ones. However, benefits for an unmarried lover are considered taxable income to the employee, so the value of the dependent health care will be taxed, Reese said.

Levi’s will use the “honor system” to ensure that people who join the health plan are really live-in, unmarried lovers, Reese said. “If we find out later they’re lying, we’ll take disciplinary action,” he added.

He said Levi’s is considering extending the new policy to its international employees, but most of those workers are in countries with some form of national health care.