This Blog was written for Labor Day in 2006.  Thanks to Janey Ranlett for updating it for 2007.

On Monday, September 3, many Americans will enjoy a day off to commemorate Labor Day, a holiday which differs in many respects from other holidays.  As Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor, said, “All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation."

Simply put – Labor Day celebrates the day to day endeavors of all Americans as we strive to earn a good day’s pay for a good day’s work, enabling us to provide for our families and enjoy a good quality of life.

Yet this “good quality of life” is elusive for many Americans.  Many of us work day in and day out and still don’t quite make ends meet.  During a recent visit to the State Fair in Sacramento, I  met a young woman who in “real life” is a construction laborer working out of Local 185.  Her industry has been slow enough this year that although she considers herself blessed with a good job, she has gotten not just one but two separate part-time jobs at this year’s Fair.

How many of us are working two to three jobs and still barely making ends meet? Consider these folks and let them not be “invisible” to you or me: the person who takes your order at your favorite restaurant or brews your $4 espresso drink, delivers your daily newspaper, and like my new acquaintance, the men and women hammering away on a construction site. 

Especially here in California, where the cost of living is so high, we must do the right thing to make sure that our minimum wage is a living wage so that anyone holding down a full time job receives a good quality of life as the fruit of their labor. Now THAT would be uniquely American!