Labor Day (Labour Day in Canada) is an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. From a HR perspective, its quite possibly the single most significant holiday of the year. That’s because Labor Day comes from the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.
For many countries, Labor Day is synonymous with, or linked with, International Workers’ Day, which occurs on 1 May. For other countries, Labour Day is celebrated on a different date, often one with special significance for the labour movement in that country.
In Canada and the United States, it is celebrated on the first Monday of September and considered the official end of the summer holiday for most of the respective countries, as public school and university students return to school that week or the following week.
For many countries, today is linked with International Workers’ Day, which occurs on 1 May. Some countries vary the actual date of their celebrations so that the holiday occurs on a Monday close to 1 May. The remainder of this article addresses those countries for whom Labor Day is not linked to International Workers’ Day.
Top 10 Labor Day Facts:
- Labor Day in Canada began in 1872 in Toronto but quickly made its way south to the U.S. Originally it began as a significant demonstration demanding rights for workers.
- The first U.S. Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, planned by the Central Labor Union. The Labor Day parade of about 10,000 workers took unpaid leave and marched from City Hall past Union Square uptown to 42nd street, and ended in Wendel’s Elm Park at 92nd Street and 9th Avenue for a concert, speeches, and a picnic.
- Oregon was the first state to make Labor Day a holiday in 1887.
- On June 28, 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.
- The year in which the 8-hour day was firmly established was 1916 with the passage of the Adamson Act. This was the first federal law regulating hours of workers in private companies.
- Traditionally people did not wear white or seersucker clothes after Labor Day as it unofficially marked the end of summer.
- The football season starts on or around Labor Day and many teams play their first game of the year during Labor Day weekend.
- Labor Day is viewed as the unofficial last day of vacation before the start of the new school year (and mourned by students all over). Stated differently, it is the Back-to-School kickoff (cheered by parents all over!).
- What are we celebrating? The contributions and achievements of the 155 million men and women who are in the U.S. workforce.
- In the late 1800s the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks to eke out a basic living. Children as young as 5-6 years old worked in factories and mines.