About one million workers received financial benefits from the Trump administration's tax reform plan that was signed into law last month, White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn said Friday.
Cohn told Fox Business Network's Stuart Varney the administration didn't expect so many companies to respond positively so soon after President Donald Trump signed the tax bill.
"In just two weeks, we've had well over 100 companies announce year-end bonuses, 401(k) contributions, or increases to minimum wages for about a million workers in the United States," Cohn said. "So, a million workers in the last week of 2017 got a surprise just because of the tax reform package and that is something that we didn't even expect to see.
"In addition to that, a bunch of companies did announce pretty big capital expenditure plans as well, and we expect to see a lot more action and activity just like that."
The tax bill combined cuts to the individual and corporate tax rates. The corporate rate was slashed from 35 percent down to 22 percent, a huge decrease that is resulting in businesses investing some of the money they expect to save in their employees and their businesses as a whole.
Varney pointed out that some critics are calling the bonuses paid to employees "window dressing" so they can look good for Trump.
"Stuart, if you just got $1,000 bonus and you weren't expecting it, I don't think it's window dressing. If your wages just went up to $15 and you were earning $8 or $9 and you're an hourly employee, I don't think that's window dressing," Cohn said.
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