This guide covers wage and hour law end to end, for the worker with an unpaid claim, the employer trying to comply, and the lawyer on either side. Part 1 covers coverage, joint employment, and the federal floor, including the long list of things the statute does not require that people assume it does. Part 2 covers minimum wage and the regular rate that must include nondiscretionary bonuses before overtime is computed. Part 3 covers the exemptions, the salary basis test whose violation can defeat an entire classification, and the duties tests that decide misclassification. Part 4 covers hours worked: the continuous workday, meal breaks, travel, on-call time, remote work, and neutral rounding. Part 5 covers the tip credit and the conditions that forfeit it entirely, and Part 6 covers employee status under the economic reality test. Part 7 covers recordkeeping and the Mt. Clemens burden shift that makes claims provable when no records exist, and Part 8 covers remedies, liquidated damages, willfulness, and the limitations period. Part 9 covers retaliation, which is frequently worth more than the wage claim, and Parts 10 through 14 cover enforcement routes, arbitration, the state layer that usually supplies the larger claim, compliance audits, and industry-specific patterns.