Is Labor Day a Federal Holiday?

Every year on the first Monday of September, most Americans get the day off to celebrate Labor Day and pay homage to the achievements of millions of U.S. workers and the contributions they've made to the development of the country.

Banks are closed, no mail is delivered and just about every government office and building are shut down for the day because Labor Day is a federal holiday—meaning it's acknowledged by the U.S. Government and allows federal employees to enjoy the day off, but still get paid as if they did work—just like other holidays, including New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, George Washington's birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Labor Day has been recognized this way since June 28, 1894, when President Grover Cleveland signed a law mandating the first September of the year a national holiday.

The history of Labor Day's origin mostly depends on whom you ask. According to the Department of Labor, there are some claims that the observance was first proposed by a man named Peter J. McGuire, the general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and co-founder of the American Federation of Labor. There are others who claim Matthew Maguire, the former secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York, suggested establishing a holiday to thank workers for their service.

Regardless of whose idea it was, people all across the country catch a break at the start of every September.

Prior to the establishment of Labor Day and labor laws that regulated working conditions, hours and pay, many Americans working blue-collar jobs rallied against private companies and the unfair treatment they received at the hands of said companies.

One of the most significant protests occurred in 1886, when thousands of workers took to the streets all across the U.S. to demand eight-hour workdays—at the time it was common for laborers to work seven days a week and sometimes for up to 20 hours a day.

The year Cleveland signed the Labor Day holiday into law was also a big one in terms of worker strikes, particularly with the Pullman strike that lasted from May to July 1894, in the midst of an economic depression. Railroad workers fed up with George Pullman, the owner of the luxury railroad car manufacturer Pullman Company, walked out on the job after Pullman, who lived in a lavish mansion at the railroad construction site, lowered worker's wages by nearly 30 percent. However, he didn't reduce rent costs for the barracks most workers were living in on the construction grounds.

The walkout caught the attention of the American Railroad Union, which led to a national railroad boycott affecting 29 companies. Train production came to a standstill on numerous railways, and Cleveland was forced to intervene, thus leading the president to declare Labor Day's recognition on the first Monday of September.