Labor Day 2022 will occur on Monday, September 5th.

Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achieve-
ments of American workers and is traditionally observed on
the first Monday in September. It was created by the labor
movement in the late 19th century and became a federal
holiday in 1894. Labor Day weekend also symbolizes the
end of summer for many Americans, and is celebrated with
parties, street parades and athletic events.
Why Do We Celebrate Labor Day?

Labor Day, an annual celebration of workers and their
achievements, originated during one of American labor his-
tory’s most dismal chapters. In the late 1800s, at the height
of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, the aver-
age 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. People of all ages, particularly
the very poor and recent immigrants, often faced extremely
unsafe working conditions, with insufficient access to fresh
air, sanitary facilities and breaks. As manufacturing in-
creasingly supplanted agriculture as the wellspring of
American employment, labor unions, which had first ap-
peared in the late 18th century, grew more prominent and
vocal. They began organizing strikes and rallies to protest
poor conditions and compel employers to renegotiate hours
and pay.
How a Deadly Railroad Strike Led to the Labor Day
Holiday.

Many of these events turned violent during this period, in-
cluding 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 lat-
er, 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 Com-
pany 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 boy-
cott of all Pullman railway cars, crippling railroad traffic
nationwide. To break the Pullman strike, the federal gov-
ernment dispatched troops to Chicago, unleashing a wave of
riots that resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen work-
ers.
Who Created Labor Day?

In the wake of this massive unrest and in an attempt to re-
pair ties with American workers, Congress passed an act
making Labor Day a legal holiday in the District of Colum-
bia and the territories. On June 28, 1894, President Grover
Cleveland signed it into law. 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 Federa-
tion of Labor, while others have suggested that Matthew
Maguire, a secretary of the Central Labor Union, first pro-
posed the holiday.
Labor Day Celebrations:

Labor Day is still celebrated in cities and towns across the
United States with parades, picnics, barbecues, fireworks
displays 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.