Hotel Wage & HourThe Hospitality Pay Compliance Resource

Resources

The reference library

The layer the issue briefs, state guides, and tools all refer back to — organized around the four questions a hotel operator or counsel actually asks: what a term means, where the governing law lives, how it has been interpreted, and what happens when you get it wrong.

Define & locate#

Start here: what the terms mean and where the law lives.

  • Glossary#

    116 terms — from "tip credit" to "Skidmore deference" — each with its governing authority and the hotel consequence, lettered with an A–Z jump nav.

    Use this when a brief uses a term of art you want defined precisely.

  • Authorities map#

    Where the law actually lives: the FLSA sections, the 29 CFR shelf, the IRC tip-tax provisions, and the major state codes — each with what it governs and the trap inside it.

    Use this when you need the operative statute or regulation, not a summary.

  • FAQ#

    58 operator questions with direct answers, grouped by topic: tip pools, service charges, exemptions, overtime, the 2026 W-2 changes, enforcement, and more.

    Use this when you have a specific operational question and want the short answer.

Interpret#

How the law has been construed — and how much weight each source carries.

  • Case digest#

    The 64 decisions that matter, grouped by doctrine with a thesis for each group and a watch list of pending matters — every entry with the holding and why hotels care.

    Use this when you need the holding that controls a question, in context.

  • DOL guidance directory#

    The fact sheets, opinion letters, and handbook chapters that govern hospitality — weighed for how much authority each carries after Loper Bright, with the state-agency counterparts.

    Use this when you want to rely on agency guidance and need to know if it holds.

  • Methodology & data provenance#

    How every figure is sourced and dated, the verified-vs-estimated rules the tools enforce, the gaps we disclose rather than model, and how to verify any figure yourself.

    Use this when you need to know why a number is what it is — or check it.

Apply#

What happens when you're wrong, and when obligations change.

  • Enforcement & damages#

    How exposure is measured: the forum map, the federal remedies stack, and a damages-by-jurisdiction table generated from the same verified data as the exposure modeler.

    Use this when you need to size the risk of a practice or a claim.

  • Compliance calendar#

    39 dated entries — every scheduled wage step, ordinance increase, and filing deadline — plus the year month by month and a rate-change cutover runbook.

    Use this when you're planning ahead of a rate change or a filing.

  • Developments#

    The dated record of 30 rulings, rulemakings, and ordinance changes — also available as an Atom feed.

    Use this when you want to know what changed, and when.