Labor Day falls on the first Monday of September. Its roots lie in the labour movement of the late 19th century, when many workers faced long shifts and unsafe conditions.
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On September 5, 1882, about 10,000 workers took unpaid time off to march from City Hall to Union Square in New York City, which History.com describes as the first Labor Day parade in U.S. history. The idea of a workingmen’s holiday on the first Monday in September spread to other industrial centres, and many states passed laws recognising it.
Becoming a national holiday
Oregon was the first state to make Labor Day an official holiday, in 1887, according to Equipment World. Congress passed the national holiday in June 1894. President Grover Cleveland signed it into law on June 28, 1894.
The timing is often linked to the Pullman Strike. Workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago went on strike in May 1894 over wage cuts, and federal troops were later sent to Chicago. Historians disagree about how much the strike shaped the timing of the law. Sharon Farrell, caretaker of the Grover Cleveland Birthplace, argues the law was not politically motivated, as reported by Gulf News.
Labor Day 2026
Labor Day 2026 fell on Monday, September 7, according to History.com.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article listed 2025 sale offers. Those offers have expired and have been removed.
Sources
- History.com, “Labor Day”: https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/labor-day-1
- Equipment World, “Here is how Labor Day came to be”: https://www.equipmentworld.com/landscaping/article/15041701/here-is-how-labor-day-came-to-be
- Gulf News, “Who started Labour Day?”: https://gulfnews.com/amp/story/world%2Famericas%2Fwho-started-labour-day-1.2084986