Retail chain CVS Health plans to boost benefits and increase starting wages for employees to $11 an hour, a change it credited to the Republican-backed tax law President Trump signed late last year.

Overall, the company is seeing a $1.2 billion gain in tax savings from the law.

"As part of our ongoing commitment to the patients, customers and communities we serve, we said that we would invest our tax savings back into our business, and that's exactly what we're doing," Larry Merlo, CVS Health president and CEO said in a statement as the company was announcing its fourth-quarter earnings. "Today, we're building on the investments we've been making in our employees, in their wages, benefits and career development. It's our employees who drive our performance and we appreciate how hard they work every day to deliver on our purpose of helping people on their path to better health."

The minimum wage increase, from its current $9 an hour, will take effect in April, and the company also said it also planned to increase pay for its pharmacists, front store associates and other hourly employees later in the year. The company's goal is to become a "healthcare destination," it wrote in a release.

CVS Health will make changes to benefits as well. It will create a new paid parental leave program beginning in April that will give new parents four weeks of fully-paid leave. It will not increase healthcare premiums for employee health insurance for a year, instead absorbing increases in medical and prescription drug costs. About 100,000 employees, out of 240,000, are enrolled in these plans.

The changes to employee benefits and wages will cost CVS $425 million a year.

CVS Health will put the remaining benefits from the tax law into investing in data analytics, care management and testing store pilots. For instance, it plans to boost its Minute Clinics, which allow people to make appointments online to healthcare providers quickly for a prescription or diagnosis.

The windfall from the tax law will also go toward debt reduction. The money comes just ahead of its planned purchase health insurer Aetna, a massive $69 billion deal. The agreement, announced in December, still must be approved by federal regulators.

CVS Health reported a profit of $3.29 billion, or $3.22 a share, up from $1.71 billion, or $1.59 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 5.3 percent to $48.39 billion.