Laid off from Shake Shack.

What Shake Shack layoffs have meant for employees

The terms in Shake Shack's August 2024 filing split along job lines. Managers at the closing Shacks were to be offered a position at a neighboring Shack and to receive closing pay only if they turned it down. Hourly team members were to be eligible for rehire at other Shacks, which is narrower than an offered position, and the filing has them receiving the pay as well. Either way the pay was stated as up to a number of days rather than a fixed amount, so it marks the most anyone was due under the filing, and a manager setting it against a transfer at the time was weighing a top figure rather than a known sum.

Shake Shack didn't expect its 2024 review to close any more Shacks, the filing said; the Shacks it chose to close weren't projected to provide acceptable returns. The closure it announced at San Francisco Centre in 2025 came from a different cause, the building changing hands and its new owner's demand that every tenant leave. The notice gave December 18 as the closing date and counted 26 restaurant jobs as eliminated, even though most of the affected employees had already accepted transfers to nearby Shacks with no break in service, according to the notice as the San Francisco Chronicle reported it.

The 2020 count in Shake Shack's April 17 release put furloughs and layoffs in one figure. By then it had temporarily closed 17 Shacks, about half on local government orders or because their developments had closed, the rest in tourist or travel-restricted areas, and the home office and executive teams were on reduced pay for an indefinite period. Under its April 2 update, furloughed workers would keep getting paid through at least April 8, could keep earned PTO or cash it out, and would have all employer and employee medical premiums paid through July 1, and a hiring freeze ran across the company. That coverage was paid through August 2020, past the July 1 date first given, the 2020 annual report later said, and general managers were guaranteed full pay even if their Shacks were closed.

The state records name the employer as Shake Shack Enterprises, LLC, both in California's report for 2024-25 and in New York's 2020 WARN list, which logs notices for the Hudson Yards and Woodbury Commons Shacks. Anyone from the 2024 closings who's claiming in California can find the state's claim process at California unemployment benefits, and the matching pages for the Ohio and Texas closings are Ohio unemployment benefits for a claim filed in Ohio and Texas unemployment benefits for one filed in Texas. If you work at a New York Shack, New York unemployment benefits has that state's process.

In the 2024 closings and the 2025 San Francisco notice, Shake Shack's terms offered pay to people who declined a transfer, managers in 2024 and any San Francisco Centre worker in 2025. The filing's wording gave hourly crews in 2024 the pay and eligibility for rehire together, with no transfer to weigh. The two sets of terms also differed, since 2024's pay was an "up to" figure for every group while the 2025 notice set a fixed number of days and kept benefits going for anyone who said no. If a closing offer includes continued benefits, as the 2025 notice did, how long they last is part of what the severance is worth. If you're offered a transfer when a Shack closes, it's worth knowing the new location's distance, hours and schedule, along with any pay offered for turning it down.