Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Raj Vennam: Hey, Greg. So just let me start by clarifying. We did not say it’s 5%. We said mid-single digits, and I want to make sure that it’s not treated as a 5%. I think our plan actually assumes a little bit north of that, but our guidance range embeds something closer to that 6% for wage inflation. So I just want to clarify that. And then as far as the regulatory piece, the minimum wage impact, that’s about just under 2%, I think, for the full year, maybe 1.5% to 2% is what we have there. And then beyond that, it’s just the normal merit increases and other stuff. Now as far as the comment — the question around wages and, clearly, the environment has gotten a lot better, we are doing a lot fewer out-of-cycle adjustments than we were doing even six months ago.

So from that perspective, there is clearly a lot of, I would say, for lack of a better term, positive science in hiring environment, in the starting wages, all those things getting a lot better than where a couple of quarters ago.

Rick Cardenas: And if I can just add one thing to that. If you think about our turnover coming down, that means we don’t have as many people we’re hiring as we were before. So we didn’t have to hire as many people now than we did before. And so the wage, even if the wage break didn’t happen, it’s still not as big a deal for us, but the wage break is starting to happen. But the fact that we don’t have to hire as many people helps us as well.

Gregory Francfort: Awesome. Thank you, guys for the perspective. Appreciate it.

Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to hand the call back over to Kevin Kalicak for closing remarks.

Kevin Kalicak: Thanks. That concludes our call for today. I’d like to remind you that we plan to release our first quarter results on Thursday, September 21, before the market opens with a conference call to follow. Thanks again for participating in today’s call, and have a great day.

Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today’s teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.