This guide covers prevailing wage and public works labor standards from bid preparation through investigation, litigation, and debarment. It begins with the statutory architecture — Davis-Bacon for construction, the Service Contract Act for services, Walsh-Healey for supplies, the Copeland Act for deductions and kickbacks, and the contract hours statute for overtime — then explains what a wage determination is, how construction type and geography are chosen, when a determination locks in, and how the conformance process fills gaps. It treats classification as the central issue, working through laborer versus craft, operators, truck drivers, working foremen, and misclassified owner-operators, all governed by area practice rather than job titles. It sets out fringe benefit crediting with the annualization rule that most contractors compute incorrectly, apprentice registration and ratio rules, and the site-of-the-work definition. It then covers certified payroll and the statement of compliance, the investigation sequence, withholding and restitution, debarment, and the False Claims Act and State private-right exposure that now exceeds the administrative penalty. It closes with prime and subcontractor allocation, project labor agreements, State variation, records, and a bid checklist.