Associated Bank said Thursday it will boost its minimum hourly wage to $15 and pay workers a $500 bonus when the recently passed federal tax reform is signed, making it the first major Wisconsin firm to announce it is joining the list of companies saying their employees will directly benefit from the legislation.

The Green Bay-based bank, the largest financial institution headquartered in the state, said it will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour from $10 — a 50% boost — and distribute the one-time bonus to all hourly, non-commissioned employees once the tax legislation is signed into law.

The company said the moves would affect about 55% of its workers. Associated has about 4,400 employees, with 3,400 of them in Wisconsin.

“Every day our customers share stories of our colleagues delivering a positive customer experience,” Philip B. Flynn, president and chief executive officer of Associated, said in a statement. "Our ability to recognize their work in this way is something we are proud to do.”

Flynn said the new tax legislation, particularly the reduction in business tax rates, would allow the company to share some of the benefits with its employees. The legislation reduces the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%.

Associated’s move comes as several U.S. companies are promising one-time bonuses for employees and increases in hourly pay if President Donald Trump signs into law the tax reform bill that has been voted on by the Republican-led Congress.

AT&T Inc. said it will pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 non-management workers.

Comcast said it too will award one-time $1,000 bonuses, in its case to more than 100,000 non-executive employees.

Fifth Third Bancorp, a regional bank based in Cincinnati, said it will raise the minimum wage for all of its nearly 3,000 hourly employees to $15 and will distribute a one-time bonus of $1,000 for more than 13,500 employees by the end of the year if the bill is signed by Dec. 25.

Wells Fargo, the San Francisco bank that has been hurt by a scandal involving the opening of 3.5 million unauthorized client accounts, also said it will boost its minimum wage to $15 per hour, up 11% from its current hourly rate of $13.50, once the law is passed.

Aerospace giant Boeing said it will move forward with $300 million in investments as a result of the new tax law, including $100 million in employee training and education and $100 million to enhance Boeing facilities as part of its "workforce of the future" initiative.

The corporate announcements are the first sign that many in the middle class will benefit financially from their employers paying less in taxes.

John Cotton, a professor of management who oversees the executive MBA program at Marquette University, said the pay raises and bonuses are encouraging signs for the economy.

"The concern, and I've had it as well, is that the last year stock prices have gone up but wages really haven't gone up that much," said Cotton. "The fear was that companies would take the tax break and use it to buy back stock."

Companies "are going to be making a ton more money, and I think it's a smart thing for those companies to give some of it back to employees," Cotton said.

Part of the equation may also be the low unemployment rate. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development said Thursday that seasonally adjusted unemployment in November in the state was 3.2%, the lowest since 1999. Wisconsin added 42,900 private-sector jobs from November 2016 to November 2017, according to the report.

The tax reform bill, which includes a big and permanent tax cut for corporations and temporary tax relief for individual taxpayers, has fostered a heated debate on Capitol Hill and on Wall Street as to whether middle-class Americans would benefit as much as big business will.

At Associated, the new law also will help position the bank "to further enhance the customer experience and its community investments in the future," the company said.

In 2018, Associated said, it plans to enhance its online and mobile banking platforms. In addition, the company said it is targeting approximately $3.5 million in social investments, or grants, for charitable purposes, with the majority supporting low- to moderate-income communities.

Associated said it also aims to lend expertise and financial support to promote affordable housing, provide small-business lending and advance neighborhood development.

Associated is in the process of acquiring Brown Deer's Bank Mutual Corp., which is the fourth-largest commercial bank based in Wisconsin. Bank Mutual had about 700 employees at the time the merger was announced last summer.

"I think Associated Bank, obviously it's to their benefit. You keep the best people. You don't have as much turnover," Cotton said. "If you are always hiring new people and always providing new training, when you have that kind of dynamic it's difficult to have good service. You get best service in organizations where people tend to stick around. They understand the customers. They understand the industry."

USA TODAY and Joe Taschler of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.