Sweetgreen Bets on Managers With Pay Above $200,000

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Sweetgreen is changing how it pays the managers of its restaurants. Starting next year, those who hit company milestones can earn more than $200,000 a year, and the CEO himself calls the plan a bet.

A bet on keeping good managers

Co-founder and CEO Jonathan Neman said the aim is to share wins with the people driving them. He called the move "definitely a bet", but said the data suggests that better-paid, better-retained managers drive higher sales and better margins.

Part of the money is paid upfront, as higher base salaries. Most of the investment, Neman said, depends on stores meeting performance targets.

Neman said the company would normally keep most of that extra gain. Splitting it with managers, he said, is a good trade.

Costs under pressure

Labor and related costs weigh on the chain. In the quarter ending in June they took 29% of revenue, up from 28% a year earlier. Same-store sales and restaurant profits were lower than in 2025.

The pay rise lands in that setting. Sweetgreen reports third-quarter results on 5 November.

What managers get

Pay has three parts: base salary is fixed, a bonus depends on results, and equity is a stake in the company. Sweetgreen's plan uses all three. It calls its managers head coaches.

Those who run restaurants with higher sales volume will see base pay rise by up to 45%. The company declined to say how high sales must be to qualify.

A restaurant that outperforms its sales goals pays its manager a share of the extra revenue, and the percentage rises with years in the business. Managers can also keep receiving equity based on performance.

Base pay increases take effect in the first quarter of 2027. Quarterly bonuses based on store performance begin on 1 January 2027.

Chains that did it first

Neman said Sweetgreen looked to chains such as In-N-Out Burger, whose store managers, the chain recently confirmed, average more than $200,000. He also named Raising Cane's, which grants monthly sales-based bonuses and said in 2024 that it paid managers up to $175,000 a year.

In 2021 Chipotle said its highest-level general managers could earn $100,000 on average, a step meant to keep staff when hiring was hard. Its restaurant operating margins have stayed between 23% and 26% in recent years. In 2025, more than 85% of its general managers were promoted from within, per its 2026 proxy statement.

Besides sales, Sweetgreen will watch team turnover, whether managers stay in their stores, quality and experience scores, and internal mobility to judge whether the program works.

Our view

Most of the cost is contingent, so the plan only gets expensive if stores do well. The risk sits in the fixed salary rises and in what happens if sales stay soft. Sweetgreen says it will track team turnover and manager stability, which will show over time whether the bet pays off.

Source: Fortune