The wage is the smallest number in the calculation and the only one most owners run. The rest of it decides whether the hire works or quietly drains the year.
Most small operations know the total for the year and nothing about which work produced it. The difference between those two facts is usually an entire category of job.
There is no single rulebook for state and local obligations and nobody mails one out. That is why the first notice usually arrives from a state you barely worked in.