Company: CAVA
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-007882
Chunk: 109

Company: CAVA GROUP, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 109
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 wage increases and/or expansion of benefits mandates will have a particularly significant impact on our labor costs. In addition, our suppliers, distributors, and business partners may be similarly impacted by wage and benefit cost inflation, and many have or will increase their prices for goods and services in order to offset their increasing labor costs.

Furthermore, maintaining appropriate staffing and hiring and training new staff, both for our restaurants and our facilities, requires precise workforce planning, which has become more complex due to, among other things:

•significant staffing and hiring issues in the restaurant industry throughout the country;

•laws related to wage and hour violations or predictive scheduling, such as “Fair Workweek” or “secure scheduling,” in certain geographic areas where we operate as well as New York City’s “just cause” termination legislation; and

•low levels of unemployment, which has resulted in aggressive competition for talent, wage inflation, and pressure to improve benefits and workplace conditions to remain competitive.

In particular, several jurisdictions in which we operate, including New York City, have implemented “Fair Workweek” legislation, which requires fast food employers to provide employees with specified notice in scheduling changes and pay premiums for changes made to employees’ schedules, among other requirements. The regulations are often complex to administer and have evolved over time and may continue to do so. Furthermore, similar legislation may be enacted in other jurisdictions in which we operate, and in jurisdictions we may enter in the future. Such regulatory structures have in the past and may in the future, result in increased costs, both in terms of ongoing compliance and resolution of alleged violations. 

We face many of these same risks with respect to the Team Members who work within our Collaboration Center Organization. Our information technology and other systems are critical to the management and growth of our business, and our success will depend in part on our ability to hire, motivate, and retain these qualified personnel.

Additionally, we engage a number of independent contractors to work for us in various aspects of our business, in particular in our information technology and marketing departments. Therefore, we are subject to federal, state, and local laws regarding independent contractor classification, which are subject to judicial and agency interpretation and may change from time to time. In the event of a reclassification of the independent contractors as employees, we could be exposed to various liabilities and additional costs. These liabilities and additional costs could include exposure (for prior and future periods) under federal, state, and local laws, and workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, labor, and employment laws, as well as potential liability for penalties and