This guide is a working reference to worker classification for employees, businesses, and the counsel who advise both. It explains why the parties' designation does not control, sets out the three governing tests with the factors courts actually weigh, and shows why the same worker can be an employee under one statute and a contractor under another. Substantive chapters cover each right that turns on classification: minimum wage and overtime, payroll taxation, workers compensation, unemployment, discrimination coverage, benefit plan eligibility, organizing rights, and safety obligations. Remedy chapters quantify exposure on both sides, including liquidated damages, willfulness, the recordkeeping burden that shifts proof to the employer, and the reduced tax rates available for unintentional misclassification. Procedural chapters compare the four independent routes a worker may take and the different tests each forum applies. Compliance chapters supply an audit method, drafting practices that make a genuine contractor relationship defensible, and the response protocol when a claim arrives. Special-situation chapters address joint employment, platform work, interns, owners, and statutory categories.