WASHINGTON Ever since President Donald Trump signed a massive corporate tax cut into law last month, some of the biggest American companies have been touting pay increases as evidence of profits translating into meaningful gains for workers.

But theres a problem with this spin: Nearly all of the companies involved, from Walmart to Wells Fargo, were wildly profitable before the legislation passed, and the benefits theyre now promoting constitute just a tiny fraction those profits. Compared with the massive gains analysts expect to accrue to shareholders as a result of the new tax law, these perks really are, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said earlier this month, little more than crumbs.

Whatever revenues corporations have left after paying for workers, supplies and other costs of doing business including taxes gets booked as corporate profit, enriching the companys owners. Nothing in the tax code prior to the GOP overhaul prevented companies from turning over any of these profits to their employees in the form of higher wages or bonuses. But by slashing the corporate tax rate rom 35 percent to 21 percent, the bill did make sure that a much larger share stays with shareholders. For some companies, the difference could mean billions of dollars a year.

Consider Verizon, HuffPosts parent company, which said it would give all its workers 50 shares, which will vest over two years. With about 161,000 employees, at $54 per share at the time of the announcement, the total benefit would come to about $434 million. Since the company said it would save $3.5 billion to $4 billion from the tax bill, the stock award represents somewhere between 10 percent and 28 percent of Verizons annual tax savings, and just 1.4 percent of the companys profit in 2017.

Meanwhile, Walmart, the nations largest private employer, announced it would spend an additional $700 million over the next two years on employee pay, thanks to the tax bill. Thats less than 5 percent of the companys most recent annual profit. Walmart announced the closure of 63 Sams Club stores, which will result in hundreds of layoffs, the same week.

Companies are probably more interested in a short-term public relations boost than anything else, said Matt Gardner, a senior fellow with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. We cant know whether these decisions had been made prior to the tax cuts.

None of this is preventing House Republicans from attempting to take credit for every dollar workers receive. For the families who are living paycheck-to-paycheck, an increase in take-home-pay and a $1,000 bonus to start out the new year these are not crumbs, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in an email blast.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) is keeping an official running tally of more than 250 companies that have announced pay increases because of the tax bill. Of the 48 companies from the list that also ranked among the 500 biggest firms by revenue in 2017, only 18 are actually raising wages, as of Tuesday morning. Most are doling out small, one-time bonuses and improved retirement benefits. Some havent announced pay increases of any kind.

Eleven of the 18 firms that did announce raises are banks, mostly bumping hourly pay to $15 which they would likely be doing without the advantageous tax changes.