A Sweetgreen restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in a July 2019 file photo. Photo: Ajay Suresh / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0. Resized.
Sweetgreen said Tuesday that some of its top restaurant managers will be able to earn more than $200,000 a year under a new compensation plan that ties pay to restaurant sales, performance and how long a manager has worked for the chain.
The figure is total compensation, including company equity and a new bonus, not a guaranteed cash salary for every manager. Sweetgreen said the opportunity applies to top-performing managers with at least three years of tenure who run its highest-volume restaurants.
The Head Coach Incentive Plan takes effect in the first quarter of fiscal 2027. Sweetgreen calls its restaurant managers Head Coaches.
How the pay plan works
The plan has three parts. Managers who perform well can move into higher base-salary tiers as their restaurant’s sales volume increases. A new revenue-share bonus rewards them when a restaurant exceeds its sales goals, with the opportunity increasing with tenure. Managers are also eligible for equity based on performance.
That structure gives a manager a stake in a restaurant’s growth without making the manager the owner of a franchise. Sweetgreen’s announcement describes employee pay, bonuses and shares in the public company, not a transfer of restaurant ownership.
The company did not disclose its salary bands, the percentage used for the revenue-share bonus or the number of managers it expects to earn above $200,000. A job seeker cannot read Tuesday’s announcement as an offer that every restaurant-manager position pays that amount.
Sweetgreen operates 289 restaurants, according to the announcement. Chief Executive Jonathan Neman said the company is investing in its managers as it approaches 300 locations.
A separate bonus for developing future managers
Sweetgreen also described its Head Coach Restaurateur Program, which selects leading managers for additional training, mentorship and pay. Regional general managers nominate candidates, who are then interviewed by the chief executive and chief operating officer.
Selected Restaurateurs receive a higher base salary and a $10,000 bonus for each team member they develop into a Head Coach, with no cap on the number of those bonuses, the company said. That reward is for developing another manager, rather than simply recruiting a new hourly employee.
The distinction matters for workers comparing the two programmes. One ties compensation to the sales and performance of the restaurant a manager runs. The other adds an incentive for experienced leaders to train people who can run restaurants themselves.
Retention is part of the business case
Chief Operating Officer Jason Cochran said the company wants managers to build teams, earn customer loyalty and grow profitable restaurants. Tying their compensation to performance is intended to give leaders a reason to join and stay, he said.
The chain said it is also rebuilding training, expanding leadership development, creating routes from restaurant jobs into its Support Center and introducing annual merit increases for eligible team members. It did not announce the size of those merit increases or say that every worker will receive one.
These are investments in how restaurants are run, as well as in the people running them. Sweetgreen’s announcement links the pay changes with faster service at its busiest locations and a more consistent operating model. It does not quantify how much the programme will cost or promise a particular increase in sales or profit.
For employees, the details that determine an eventual pay cheque remain restaurant volume, performance, tenure and eligibility. For the company, the plan places more of the reward for growing a location’s business in the hands of the managers responsible for its day-to-day operation.
JBizNews Desk | Los Angeles
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