Labor Day is a national holiday in the United States that is observed on the first Monday of every September. Unlike most American holidays, it is a strange celebration without any rituals other than shopping and barbecuing. For most people, it simply marks the last weekend of summer and the beginning of the school year.

The founders of the holiday in the late 1800s had something very different in mind than what the day has become. The founders were looking for two things: a way to unite union members and a reduction in working hours.

History of Labor Day

The first Labor Day took place in 1882 in New York City under the leadership of that city’s Central Labor Union.

In the 19th century, labor unions represented only a small portion of workers, and were balkanized and relatively weak. The goal of organizations like the Central Labor Union and its more modern counterparts like the AFL-CIO was to bring together many small unions to achieve critical mass and power. The organizers of the first Labor Day were interested in creating an event that brought together different types of workers to meet and recognize their common interests.

The organizers, however, had a major problem: no government or company recognized the first Monday in September as a holiday. The problem was temporarily solved by calling a one-day strike in the city. All striking workers were expected to march in a parade and then eat and drink at a giant picnic.

The New York Tribune reporter who covered the event said the entire day seemed like one long political barbecue, with “rather dull speeches.”

Why was Labor Day invented?

Labor Day was created because workers felt they were spending too many hours and days at work.

In the 1830s, factory workers averaged 70 hours a week. Sixty years later, in 1890, the number of hours worked had fallen, although the average factory worker still worked 60 hours a week in a factory.

These long hours caused many union organizers to focus on winning a shorter eight-hour workday. They also focused on giving workers more days off, such as the Labor Day holiday, and reducing the workweek to just six days.

These early organizers were clearly the winners, as the most recent data shows that the average person working in manufacturing works just over 40 hours per week, with most people working only five days per week.

Surprisingly, many politicians and businessmen were in favor of giving employees more free time. This is because employees who did not have free time could not spend their wages on travel, entertainment or eating out.

As the American economy expanded beyond agriculture and basic manufacturing in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it became important for businesses to find consumers interested in buying the products and services that were being produced in ever-increasing quantities. Shortening the work week was a way to transform the working class into the consuming class.

Common misconceptions

The common misconception is that because Labor Day is a national holiday, everyone gets the day off. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While the first Labor Day was created by strikes, the idea of ​​a special holiday for workers was easy for politicians to support. It was easy because declaring a holiday, like Mother’s Day, costs lawmakers nothing and gives them an advantage by currying favor with voters. In 1887, Oregon, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey all declared a special legal holiday in September to honor workers.

Within 12 years, half of the states in the country recognized Labor Day as a holiday. It became a national holiday in June 1894 when President Grover Cleveland signed the Labor Day Act. Although most people interpreted this as recognizing the day as a national holiday, the proclamation from Congress only applies to federal employees. It is up to each state to declare its own legal holidays.

Furthermore, declaring any day an official holiday means little, since an official holiday does not require private employers and even some government agencies to give their employees the day off. Many stores are open on Labor Day. Essential government services such as protection and transportation continue to operate, and even non-essential programs such as national parks are open. Because not everyone gets Labor Day off, union members as recently as the 1930s were encouraged to organize one-day strikes if their employers refused to give them the day off.

In the president’s annual Labor Day proclamation last year, Obama encouraged Americans “to celebrate this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies and activities that honor the contributions and resilience of working Americans.”

However, the proclamation does not officially state that anyone has the right to free time.

Controversy: Activists and Founders

Today, most people in the US consider Labor Day an uncontroversial holiday.

There is no family drama like Thanksgiving, no religious issues like Christmas. But 100 years ago, there was controversy.

The first controversy people fought over was how militant workers should behave on a day meant to honor workers. Communist, Marxist and socialist members of the trade union movement supported May Day as an international day of demonstrations, street protests and even violence, which continues to this day.

More moderate unionists, however, advocated a September Labor Day with parades and picnics. In the US, picnics, rather than street protests, won the day.

There is also disagreement about who came up with the idea. The earliest history, from the mid-1930s, credits Peter J. McGuire, who founded the New York City Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners in 1881, with proposing a date that would fall “nearly halfway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving,” which would “openly display the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations.”

Later studies from the early 1970s provide excellent evidence that Matthew Maguire, a representative of the Machinists Union, was indeed the founder of Labor Day. However, because Matthew Maguire was seen as too radical, the more moderate Peter McGuire was given the credit.

We’ll probably never know who actually came up with the idea, but you can vote online here to have your say.

Have We Lost the Spirit of Labor Day?

Today, Labor Day is no longer about union members marching through the streets with banners and their tools. Instead, it is a confusing holiday without any associated rituals.

The original holiday was meant to address the problem of long work hours and no free time. While the battle over these issues seems to have been won long ago, this problem is coming back with a vengeance, not for production workers, but for highly skilled office workers, many of whom are constantly connected to work.

If you work all the time and never really take a vacation, start a new ritual that honors the original spirit of Labor Day. Give yourself a day off. Don’t go to work. Turn off your phone, computer, and other electronic devices that keep you connected to your daily grind. Then, go to a barbecue, like the original participants did over a century ago, and celebrate having at least one day off from work each year!