AT&T said Wednesday it will give 200,000 of its U.S. employees a $1,000 bonus once the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is signed into law _ a move President Trump touted in a speech after Congress passed the massive tax cut bill.
"Today, Congress approved legislation representing the first comprehensive tax reform in a generation," AT&T said in a statement.
"Once tax reform is signed into law, AT&T plans to invest an additional $1 billion in the United States in 2018 and pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 AT&T U.S. employees _ all union-represented, non-management and front-line managers. If the president signs the bill before Christmas, employees will receive the bonus over the holidays," AT&T added.
AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said Congress and the President "took a monumental step to bring taxes paid by U.S. businesses in line with the rest of the industrialized world."
The announcement comes more than a month after AT&T proposed a $85 billion merger with Time Warner _ a deal the Trump administration has blocked with a lawsuit.
The Department of Justice cited concerns that the merged companies could charge unfair fees to consumers.
"This merger would greatly harm American consumers. It would mean higher monthly television bills and fewer of the new, emerging innovative options that consumers are beginning to enjoy," said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim.
The tax bill would reduce the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent _ providing a big boost for large American companies including AT&T.
Trump took credit for AT&T's move Wednesday.
"That's because of what we did. So that's pretty good," he said.
Skeptics weighed in on the disclosure of the charitable act Wednesday.
"Yes it is commendable that AT&T is giving its employees a $1,000 bonus. But it's $200 million, for a company that had $13 billion in profit last year. Or, put another way, it didn't need tax cut to do it. This is PR," said Dan Primack, business editor at Axios on Twitter.
Wells Fargo announced a similar measure Wednesday, saying it would pay more than 13,500 employees a bonue and raise the minimum wage for its workers to $15 after the Republican tax plan is passed.
"It's good for our communities, employees and Fifth Third Bank," CEO Greg Carmichael said in a statement.
