Ahhhhh! Labor Day Weekend

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This weekend marks the official farewell to summer. We celebrate by holding barbeque picnics, games at the beach or the lake, working in the yard or attending a parade or County Fair in your local hometown. Retail merchants are out in full force, trying to temp shoppers with bargains, restaurants are jammed packed and shopping centers are hubs of bustling activity as the last bit of back-to-school shopping is completed before students return to class rooms for the year.

According to the United States department of Labor, the Labor Day holiday was created to celebrate the workers of our nation:

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.....

This is a holiday to celebrate you and me. We—the vital cogs in the machine—are being celebrated by the professional classes, the doctors, the teachers, the lawyers, the civil servants working at all levels of government. This is also a day that the wealthy elite pay tribute to those that have labored long and hard to produce the economic wealth that is now possible. Give the workers a holiday all their own, give them a day of celebration and relaxation, as their work is so vital to our success as a nation.

But something isn’t quite right with our modern “Labor Day” celebrations. It is the professional and upper classes that get to celebrate and relax, and the workers are the ones that make it possible to enjoy the long holiday weekend. Schools, banks and post offices are closed. The courts are closed; the government buildings are closed. Government workers all get the day off. Doctor’s offices are closed. Accounting firms are closed. Brokerage houses are closed. Professional organizations shutter their offices on this holiday weekend. The few professional and civic organizations that must remain open, generously reward their people for working on a national holiday through extra pay or other benefits such as extra vacation time.

But what about the workers? I’d be wiling to bet that Wal Mart (the nation’s largest private employer) isn’t offering extra pay to their people that work on the holiday weekend. Probably not any of the major retailing chains are offering any incentives to their workers to come in on this holiday dedicated to the American worker. Drive through your city and make note of all the restaurants, stores and shops that are open today. Also look at all the semi-trucks on the road delivering goods to those establishments. Who else is working this weekend? I know a lot of people in the construction business that are not taking the weekend off, mostly because they cannot afford to do so. Are the call centers closed? How about auto repair shops? Sears is pumping cars through their service center just like Wal Mart, Costco, Firestone, and the small local mom-and-pop car repair facilities.

It would appear that Labor Day is yet another day for the workers to labor on with their jobs. No time off for the useful cogs, while the professional elite are able to celebrate with some extra time off, or at the very least, some extra cash on top of their already generous salary.

Maybe I am bitter because I am a service worker (as are the vast majority of American workers). As many as 55% of all Americans can be considered service employees. Some are categorized as factory workers, but those factories are pumping out items for service based businesses, such as dough production for Pizza Hut restaurants or baked goods for the local Starbuck’s locations. I’d be willing to bet that neither company is giving their factory production facility workers the weekend off.

So enjoy your Labor Day weekend. I, for one, am working. Are you?