Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers.
At the height of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s, the average American worked 12 days, seven days a week! Even children as young as five or six toiled in mills, factories and mines, earning only a fraction of what adults did.
The working conditions were often dirty and unfair. But as manufacturing surpassed agriculture as the root of American employment, labor unions grew more prominent and vocal. They began organizing strikes and rallies to protest poor conditions and compel employers to renegotiate hours and pay.
Finally, after a railroad strike in 1894 that threatened the economy of the entire country, President Grover Cleveland made Labor Day a federal holiday.
