The Cheesecake Factory

RANK35

Few parts of the economy were as hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as the restaurant industry. The Cheesecake Factory saw sales fall 20% last year, with much sharper declines early on. But the company took measures to ease some of the pain for its workers, 40,000 of whom were furloughed as restaurants were shuttered last spring. The Cheesecake Factory teamed up with other companies, notably grocer Wegmans, to find such employees temp work. And the 294-restaurant company retained its 2,500 restaurant managers, preserving their salaries during the closures.