Today is the first Monday in September. Which makes today Labor Day.  And, since 1882, when we first celebrated the event in New York City, it has grown to become a national holiday. (New York State should have been the first state to make it a state holiday- but they dawdled passing the bill, so Oregon earned that honor.)

We still don’t know who thought the idea up. Some say it was Peter McGuire (the co-founder of the American Federation of Labor- the AFL in the AFL-CIO), but it probably was his homonym- Mathew Maguire (of the Machinists Union) who should be honored with the concept.

Over the course of my life, I have been labor and I have been the “man”. (To be honest, I spent a lot more time in my life as the “man”, but, hopefully, I was an enlightened version of a boss.) I’ve written before about my first real job– working in a dry cleaning store… But, I was only “labor” in that situation for about a year- I had become assistant manager after that first year.

And, then I worked as a waiter for a catering hall. It was a union gig. (To be honest, the union wasn’t an omnipresent focus on the job.) After a few years (I think it was three), I became shop steward (Local 923) and eventually an officer (Treasurer) of the union.  But I resigned that position almost immediately upon my election- I had just joined the management team of that same catering hall.

As an employer, I never paid anyone the minimum wage. There were a few reasons for that. For starters, most folks can’t make ends meet getting paid that little. (I do admit that it was easier to do so some 30 years ago, but…)

I also never hired the “just adequate”, but searched for those with a little bit more.  That quest matches one of my eMail signatures:

The difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary is just that little bit “extra”. Let’s aim for the extraordinary!.

And, as an employer, I always made sure our firm shared its profits with our employees- at least, with those that were around for at least 18 months.

Given the state of the economy- in the US and around the world; given the way firms don’t consider the efforts of their employees who make the products or deliver the services that generate the revenue for that firm; and given the way corporate executives extract 100X, 250X, 500X the average wages they pay their staff for their own compensation, it’s pretty hard to get excited about the concept of “Labor” Day.

Nowadays, it seems that Labor Day is only the separation point between summer vacation and the first day of school for our public schools.

Oh, wait.  There has been a new development or two when it comes to labor.  First- those teaching assistants at universities- the folks who actually teach a few classes and certainly run the laboratory and review sessions- have been granted the right to form unions.  So they can become adequately compensated and so that they can get the hours they work regulated.   This is going to change university and college systems dramatically.

The second change would apply to major franchises or companies that officially don’t have employees, but farm out their employees to others.  These folks will now be considered to be employed by ONE entity- and not the firm masquerading as the employer.   This will change the pay and benefits most of our poorly paid (i.e., minimum wage) folks endure.  

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