Five takeaways:
- Paying tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers, Labor Day became a holiday in 1894 amid the groundswell of the labor movement of the late nineteenth century.
- During the height of the industrial revolution in the late 1800s, working conditions were abysmal and regulations protecting workers were thin. A series of demonstrations and riots advocating for workers’ rights created unrest that led to the government recognizing American workers with a federal holiday.
- The first Labor Day parade occurred Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City. The workers’ unions chose the first Monday in September because it was halfway between Independence Day and Thanksgiving.
- President Grover Cleveland signed the bill into law in 1894, despite not being a staunch labor union supporter. Historians agree that he was trying to repair some political damage he suffered in the wake of the federal response to a strike in Chicago earlier that year that had resulted in the deaths of 30 workers.
- Membership in labor unions in the United States reached an all-time high in the 1950s, when about 33 percent of the workforce belonged to unions. In 2020, union membership was down to 10.8 percent of the working population, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
From How Stuff Works
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