We celebrate Labor Day every year with mattress and white sales, the last picnics of the summer, State Fairs and other events but why? What are the origins of Labor Day and what was the original purpose of the holiday?
Over time, the significance of dates and holidays become lost. December 7th, the day of the dastardly Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, used to be remembered with reverence and awe but now is just another date on the calendar. Twenty years after 9/11, I wonder at what future date we will “remember” 9/11 as we do December 7th today. Halloween used to be a day of terror when people dressed up as ghosts and ghouls in order to save their immortal souls by trying to fool the spirits that were allowed to wander the Earth on that day.
Labor Day used to be about life and death. People worked a 12-hour day, some a 16-hour day, 7 days a week 365 days a year until they were killed on the job or just plain wore out. It didn’t leave much time for church, family life or children. In fact, children as young as five were working in mills and children were routinely working full-time by age 10. Reformers managed to finagle Sunday’s off with the argument that the United States would become a godless nation if folks weren’t allowed time off of work to go to church.
The first organized protest in favor of an 8-hour day took place August 20, 1866. In 1867, Illinois became the first state to mandate an 8-hour day. In June of 1868 Congress passed the 8-hour day for all federal employees but it wasn’t until the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1937 that the 8-hour day became the standard throughout the United States.
Still, many places had no unemployment insurance, sick leave, health benefits, vacation time or workmen’s compensation etc. People pointed out and rightly so, that the nation ran on its labor and we all couldn’t all be self-employed yeomen farmers. It was felt that the American workplace needed to be safer and employment policies needed to be more reasonable and humane. In short, the labor force needed to be recognized and celebrated for their contribution to productivity and prosperity hence the concept of a “Labor Day” was born.
Oregon became the first state to make it a holiday in 1887. By 1894 twenty-two states had made it a holiday and on June 28, 1894 President Grover Cleveland signed the law that created the federal holiday called “Labor Day.” The law states that Labor Day will be celebrated on the first Monday in September and that’s why Labor Day moves around from year to year.
There are many people we have to thank for the life we live today. In our work lives we need to pause and give thanks for those who brought about the 8-hour work day, workplace safety, benefits and all of the other protections and privileges we enjoy in employment in the 21st Century. Labor Day is about recognizing the people who worked hard and sometimes died for those comforts and protections that we enjoy today. So celebrate work, labor and life by remembering the antecedents and pioneers of Labor Day.