• Sweetgreen just rolled out a new incentive and compensation plan for restaurant managers.
• A higher base salary and new revenue-share bonus could push top performers above $200,000.
• "As we approach 300 restaurants, we're betting big on our Head Coaches," CEO Jonathan Neman said.

Sweetgreen restaurant managers are about to see some more sweet green.

The salad bowl chain said Tuesday it is rolling out a new compensation and incentive plan for the new year that would raise annual pay for managers of high-performing locations to more than $200,000.

"This sets Sweetgreen up to be in the top tier of restaurants for total compensation for general managers," chief operating officer Jason Cochran told Business Insider. "Our ability to be able to attract, retain, and also inspire many of our internal team members to want to be head coaches — I think it's going to be meaningful for many years to come."

Managers need to have at least three years on the job to be eligible for the highest pay bands, and a new revenue-share bonus will directly reward leaders when their location beats it sales goals, the company said. Managers may also receive shares of Sweetgreen stock based on their performance.

Cochran said the typical tenure of restaurant managers ranges from three months to 10 years, and that store teams consist of about 25 to 50 employees.

"One of the shift leads was telling me they heard the news and how excited they were for their career at Sweetgreen," he said. "She's been with us six years."

The company also said the changes at the top are part of a larger push to improve talent retention and training within the chain.

"Great leaders build great teams, and great teams build a great business. As we approach 300 restaurants, we're betting big on our Head Coaches," co-founder and CEO Jonathan Nemen said in a statement. "The restaurant industry has always been one of the great engines of opportunity, and we want to make that real for thousands of people."

Greens say Labour has ‘no respect for young people’ amid reports chancellor will pause equalisation of minimum wage for under-21s with that paid to older workers

Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has not contested reports saying that, in the budget tomorrow, John Healey, the chancellor, will pause the process of equalising the lower national minimum wage paid to people under the age of 21 with the more generous national living wage that applies to older workers.

In an interview on the BBC this morning, Reynolds was asked to respond to a story suggesting the equalisation process has been put on hold because of concerns about youth unemployment.

John Healey will announce plans to increase the minimum wage by nearly 4% but slow the rise for young people after warnings that they are being priced out of jobs.

The Times has been told that the national living wage, which applies to those aged 21 and over, is expected to rise from £12.71 to around £13.20 – an increase of 3.9%.

The manifesto pledge on equalisation still applies, but it was always clear it would happen over time and we would take into account, as the minimum wage uprating each year always does, the relative strength of the labour market and other pressures …

Of course, you want not just good wages, but good work. And the way this has always been done – it is a balance of making sure the pressures on the labour market are taken into account. That is the approach you will see confirmed [in the budget].

Anyone doing a day’s work, needs to be paid the same rate for the same job. A young person’s rent and food bill is no less because they are young, so they need to receive the same wage.

Healey and Burnham are now breaking a manifesto pledge to young people that even Starmer managed to keep. Labour have no respect for young people, who appear to just be there for cheap labour for the wealthy and their corporate donors.

[It] wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but I wouldn’t ban anybody from doing so … I don’t want us to get into a world of cancel culture.

I’m not going to have run a party where we say you can’t talk about that person or that person. We have to be sensible about vetting. And we are.