CHEESECAKE FACTORY INC

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Pay Versus Performance

Pursuant to Item 402(v) of Regulation S-K promulgated under the Exchange Act, we are providing the Company’s “pay versus performance” disclosure below. This disclosure has been prepared in accordance with Item 402(v) and does not necessarily reflect value actually realized by the executives or how our Compensation Committee evaluates compensation decisions in light of Company or individual performance. The use of the term “compensation actually paid” ​(“CAP”) is required by the SEC’s rules. Per SEC rules, CAP was created by adjusting the Summary Compensation Table (“SCT”) total values for the applicable year as described in the footnotes to the following table. Please refer to our “Compensation Discussion and Analysis” section for a discussion of our executive compensation program objectives and the ways in which we align executive compensation with performance.

The following table sets forth information concerning the compensation of our Named Executive Officers (“NEOs”) for each of the fiscal years ended December 28, 2021; January 3, 2023; January 2, 2024; December 31, 2024; and December 30, 2025, and our financial performance for each such fiscal year:

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(1)

The Principal Executive Officer (“PEO”) in all five reporting years is our CEO, David Overton. The NEOs in all five reporting years are David M. Gordon, Matthew E. Clark, Scarlett May and Keith T. Carango.

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(2)

CAP amount to our PEO and NEOs, as shown in columns (c) and (e) above in fiscal 2025 reflects the respective amounts shown in columns (b) and (d) of the table shown above, with adjustments shown below as determined by the SEC rules:

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Fair value or change in fair value, as applicable, of equity awards in the “Compensation Actually Paid” columns was determined by reference to (i) for solely service-vesting restricted stock awards, the closing price per share on the applicable year-end date(s) or, in the case of vesting dates, the closing price per share on the applicable vesting date(s); (ii) for performance-based restricted stock awards, the same valuation methodology as restricted stock awards above except that the year-end values are multiplied by the probability of achievement of the applicable performance objective as of the applicable date; and (iii) for stock options, a Black Scholes value as of the applicable year-end or vesting date(s), determined based on the same methodology as used to determine grant date fair value but using the closing stock price on the applicable revaluation date as the current market price and with an expected life equal to the original ratio of expected life relative to the ten year contractual life multiplied times the remaining life as of the applicable revaluation date, and in all cases based on volatility and risk free rates determined as of the revaluation date based on the expected life period and based on the expected dividend rate as of the date of the applicable revaluation date. For additional information on the assumptions used to calculate the valuation of the awards, see the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2025 and prior fiscal years.

(3)

For the relevant fiscal year, represents the cumulative total shareholder return indexed to an initial investment of $100 per share of the S&P 600 Restaurants Index on December 29, 2020.

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