Employee Benefit Plans:

12 Months Ended

Jan. 03, 2012

Employee Benefit Plans:

Employee Benefit Plans:

12.  Employee Benefit Plans:

We have a defined contribution benefit plan in accordance with section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code (“401(k) Plan”) that is open to our staff members who meet certain compensation and eligibility requirements.  Participation in the 401(k) Plan is currently open to staff members from our three restaurant concepts, our bakery production facilities and our corporate office.  The 401(k) Plan allows participating staff members to defer the receipt of a portion of their compensation and contribute such amount to one or more investment options.  Our executive officers and a select group of management and/or highly compensated staff members are not eligible to participate in the 401(k) Plan.  We currently match in cash a certain percentage of the employee contributions to the 401(k) Plan and also pay the 401(k) Plan administrative expenses, neither of which were material amounts during fiscal 2011, 2010 and 2009.

We have also established The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated Executive Savings Plan (“ESP”).  The ESP is a non-qualified deferred compensation plan for our executive officers and a select group of management and/or highly compensated staff members as defined in the ESP.  The ESP allows participating staff members to defer the receipt of a portion of their base compensation and up to 100% of their eligible bonuses.  Non-employee directors may also participate in the ESP and defer the receipt of their earned director fees.  We currently match in cash a certain percentage of the base compensation and bonus deferred by participating staff members and also pay for the ESP administrative expenses, neither of which were material amounts during fiscal 2011, 2010 and 2009. Employee deferrals and any matching funds are deposited into a rabbi trust, and are generally invested in individual variable life insurance contracts owned by us that are specifically designed to informally fund savings plans of this nature.  Our consolidated balance sheets reflect our investment in variable life insurance contracts in other assets.  Our obligation to participating staff members is reflected in other noncurrent liabilities.  All income and expenses related to the rabbi trust are reflected in our consolidated statements of operations.

We maintain a self-insured medical and dental benefit plan for our staff members.  We maintain stop-loss coverage in order to limit our financial exposure from any individual medical claim.  Medical benefit plan expenses are accrued based on our estimate of the aggregate liability for uninsured claims incurred using actuarial methods commonly followed in the insurance industry and our historical experience.  The accrued liability for our self-insured medical benefit plan, which is included in other accrued expenses, as of January 3, 2012 and December 28, 2010, was $5.3 million and $4.6 million, respectively.