Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 29, 2015

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 facilities and our corporate offices.  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 a portion of the administrative costs.  Expense recognized in fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013 was $0.7 million, $0.6 million and $0.6 million, respectively.

We have also established The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated Executive Savings Plan (“ESP”), 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 plan document.  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 costs.  We do not match any contributions made by non-employee directors.  Expense recognized in fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013 was $0.9 million, $0.8 million and $0.7 million, respectively.

ESP deferrals and 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 and our obligation to participants in the ESP in other noncurrent liabilities.  All income and expenses related to the rabbi trust are reflected in our consolidated statements of income.

We maintain a self-insured medical and dental benefit plan for our staff members and utilize stop-loss coverage to limit our financial exposure from any individual medical claim.  The accrued liabilities associated with these programs are based on our estimate of the ultimate costs to settle known claims as well as claims incurred but not yet reported to us as of the balance sheet date.  The accrued liability for our self-insured medical benefit plan, which is included in other accrued expenses, as of December 29, 2015 and December 30, 2014, was $7.3 million and $7.7 million, respectively.  See Note 1 for further discussion of accounting for our self-insurance liabilities.