Comcast, AT&T, Wells Fargo and other major companies left Americans wide-eyed Thursday after announcing wage raises and holiday bonuses of up to $1,000 to hundreds of thousands of workers on the heels of a sweeping tax reform bill approved in Congress.

The surprise announcement followed passage of a fairly unpopular Republican tax cut bill that, when signed by President Donald Trump, will become the biggest tax overhaul in more than 30 years, one that gives large tax cuts to wealthy Americans and corporations and smaller cuts to others.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, touted the tax cut legislation resulting in “new investments into the U.S. economy” as “great news.”

According to Bloomberg, some companies announced wage raises, some holiday bonuses and others investment in workplace infrastructure:

Comcast: $1,000 bonus to each of about 100,000 workers and more than $50 billion in “infrastructure investments” in the next five years. AT&T: $1,000 bonus to each of 200,000 U.S. workers. Boeing: $300 million in investments for employee training, better workplace infrastructure and corporate giving. Fifth Third Bancorp: It will raise wages to $15 an hour for hourly workers, and it will give a $1,000 bonus to 13,500 workers. Wells Fargo: The company announced a $15 an hour wage raise for workers, though it did not link it to the passage of the tax bill. It says it was pre-planned, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Trump and other Republicans promoted the announced wage raises as proof that Americans would immediately enjoy the windfalls of tax cuts to corporations, a concept known as trickle-down economics. Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, called it an “early Christmas present” for the American people.

Others expressed skepticism and called the announced bonuses a public relations stunt that came off as disingenuous, given the pay gap between average workers and executives, and given the timing of those bonuses that some say were earned through union negotiations.

Zach Moller, a senior policy analyst for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, added a “fun fact” about the announced year-end bonuses: “workers get them taxed under old tax laws and companies get to deduct them from the old tax laws.”

That’s some food for thought.

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