From the Accrual of Points section of the Hilton Honors Terms and Conditions: "2. To earn Hilton Honors Points or credit toward tier status for hotel stays, a Member must be a registered, paying and staying guest at a participating hotel within the Hilton Portfolio and meet all of the conditions described herein."
Source: https://hiltonhonors3.hilton.com/en/...rual_of_points

If your wife's work requires the reservation to be in her name and paid by her, you're likely out of luck.

As to getting benefits like breakfast, hotels aren't obligated to provide them unless the reservation is made under the name of the Honors member with status. That said, most hotels don't know that, don't care, want to be nice, or want to avoid the hassle of having people switch names on the folio at check-in just to get breakfast and/or internet. So most hotels will give those benefits if they see an elite-level Honors account attached to the reservation.

That's my understanding of the way it works.