OJ Labor Day Rundown

Happy Labor Day to all of our Olson & Jones Construction, Inc. friends and family. We hope you get today to enjoy with your loved ones and check in with yourself. We take immense pride in working with the best and most talented trade and labor professionals in the industry and we wouldn’t be where we are today without them all.

We wanted to tell our network a little about Labor Day and why it is we celebrate it today.

While, for many people, Labor Day is a holiday that represents the end of summer, the meaning of the holiday is much deeper than that.

America has a somewhat dark history with labor rights. According to History.com, “In the late 1800s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks in order to eke out a basic living. Despite restrictions in some states, children as young as 5 or 6 toiled in mills, factories and mines across the country, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts’ wages.” (History.com Editors, April 13, 2010) These poor conditions and unsustainable hours and rates of pay sparked deep unrest amongst laborers in America, even causing riots and strikes.

Although the specific creator of Labor Day is murky depending on who you ask, American Labor Unions were the first to adopt a holiday to honor America’s hard working people. Then, some states adopted the official celebration individually, but it was a while before the United States adopted the holiday on a federal level. According to the US Department of Labor“…on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September of each year a national holiday.” (United States Dept. of Labor, publish date unknown)

So, is America the only country to celebrate Labor Day? Well, yes and no. While Labor Day as we know it in September is celebrated in the US and Canada, other countries acknowledge their workers on different days. According to People.com, “Most countries around the world also celebrate Labor Day (also called May Day or International Workers' Day), but the majority celebrate on the first day of May.” (Kathryn Whitbourne "Why Do We Celebrate Labor Day?" 4 September 2000.)