CVS Health said Thursday that it will use part of a federal tax overhaul windfall to beef up employee compensation and start a new parental leave program.

The company’s earnings nearly doubled in the last quarter of 2017, fueled by a $1.5 billion tax benefit that helped counter a flat performance from its drugstores.

CVS Health said it was raising its starting wage for hourly workers to $11 an hour from $9. It also said it will not increase health insurance premiums for the 2018-2019 plan year, and it will start a paid parental leave program that gives employees with a new baby four weeks off at full pay.

The company runs the nation’s second-largest drugstore chain with more than 9,800 locations. It also processes more than a billion prescriptions annually as a pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM.

In the fourth quarter, the company earned $3.29 billion. Results adjusted to exclude the tax break totaled $1.92 per share. Revenue climbed 5 percent, to $48.38 billion.

That topped Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected earnings of $1.89 per share on $47.54 billion in revenue.

The company’s PBM side, which processes prescription claims for insurers, large employers and other clients, saw revenue increase more than 9 percent, to $34.2 billion, in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, revenue from the business segment largely made up of its stores came in nearly flat at around $21 billion.

Sales from established stores also came in flat and fell in the front end, or the area outside the store pharmacies. That’s an important metric because it excludes the impact of stores that have opened or closed recently.