The History of Labor Day

Observed on the first Monday in September, Labor Day pays tribute to the hard work of American workers. It was a labor movement creation in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday in 1894. The holiday marks the end of summer for many and is celebrated with parties, parades and athletic events.

Labor Day began during one of American labor history’s most dismal chapters. In the late 1800s, at the peak of the Industrial Revolution, the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks in order to get by. Children as young as 5 or 6 worked in mills, factories, and mines across the country, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts’ wages. Those who were very poor and recent immigrants faced very unsafe working conditions, little access to fresh air, and few breaks in unsanitary conditions.

As manufacturing employment surpassed agriculture, labor unions grew more prominent and vocal. They began organizing strikes and rallies to protest poor conditions and force employers to renegotiate hours and pay. Many of these events turned violent, including the infamous Haymarket Riot of 1886, in which several Chicago policemen and workers were killed. Others gave rise to longstanding traditions: On September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers took unpaid time off to march from City Hall to Union Square in New York City, holding the first Labor Day parade in U.S. history.

The idea of a “workingmen’s holiday,” celebrated on the first Monday in September, caught on in other industrial centers across the country, and many states passed legislation recognizing it. Congress would not legalize the holiday until 12 years later, when a watershed moment in American labor history brought workers’ rights squarely into the public’s view. On May 11, 1894, employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago went on strike to protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives.

On June 26, the American Railroad Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, called for a boycott of all Pullman railway cars, setting back railroad traffic nationwide. To break the strike, the federal government sent troops to Chicago, unleashing a wave of riots that resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen workers. In the wake of this massive unrest and in an attempt to repair ties with American workers, Congress passed an act making Labor Day a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories. More than a century later, the true founder of Labor Day has yet to be identified.

Many credit Peter J. McGuire, cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, while others have suggested that Matthew Maguire, a secretary of the Central Labor Union, first proposed the holiday. Labor Day is still celebrated in cities and towns across the United States with parades, picnics, barbecues, fireworks display and other public gatherings. For many Americans, particularly children and young adults, it represents the end of the summer and the start of the back-to-school season.