The United States celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday of September — this year, September 4. State, federal and local government offices will be closed, as will schools and libraries. This is a day for the worker to celebrate the labor movement and the progress that has been made by the American worker.
The first Labor Day was celebrated with a parade in New York City on September 5, 1882, stemming from labor organization who wanted to create a holiday just for workers. The idea grew, and President Grover Cleveland made it a federal holiday in 1894. As industrialization grew, unions formed to protect workers from hazards and poor pay. Unions grew in size and power, peaking at about 30 percent of workers the 1940s and 1950s, but began to decline in membership. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), only about 11 percent of workers are represented by a union.
Workers and their jobs have also changed over the decades. Today’s workers are more likely in the service industry, working in retail as cashiers, sales people, and stockers. The food service industry is also a big employer in the country, with cooks, dishwashers, bussers, and servers making up a big slice of the labor force. Laborers who work in warehouses, movers, and transportation also make up a large share of today’s workforce. Administrative office workers, including clerks and executive assistants, round out the most common jobs in the country, according the BLS.
Labor itself has changed since the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Today’s workers expect 40 hour weeks (and there’s talk of reducing that to 32 hours in some quarters), and since the pandemic, many workers don’t go into the office at all as remote work has become more common.
Labor Day festivities are celebrated with family and friends, a free day off from work. But even as you light up the barbecue and get together with everyone, remember it is the labor of other people that make the day possible: the butchers and bakers, the grocery store workers, the truck drivers who brought the food to the store, the farmers who grew the food, and the thousands of others who we can tip our hats to that make our way of life possible.
