The first Monday of September has been celebrated as Labor Day since 1882 when it was  first observed in New York City. It was started by the labor movement  to dedicate the economic and  social development of the American worker.  It is a yearly national tribute to workers for their contributions to strength, prosperity and well-being of the country.  (From US Dept. Of Labor website)  For many families the celebration and long weekend is for family gatherings, end of summer and vacations cook-outs and  thoughts of cooler weather soon approaching. It is a great day for a last visit to the shore or good old capitalist shopping for school supplies. Many people have to work on Labor Day. There are 14 national holidays but workers have vacation of say 2 weeks a year and they can choose which days they have off.  Grover Cleveland the 24th president sign Labor Day into law as a Federal holiday, in 1896.  He was defeated but Labor Day remained.  Today the number of labor union workers has decreased in the United States.

This Labor Day has the added drama of many of the fast food workers demonstrating across the country for a doubling of the minimum was from $7.25 to $15. This is  why I  chose the first photo.  These people are working but they feel the $7.25 is not a living wage.  And it probably isn’t.  On the other side, management says that fast food jobs are not for providing all the expenses of a family , but as jobs for teenager after school or entry level jobs.  They also note that there are other opportunities within the company to move up , have more responsibilities and higher wages.  From what I have read, many of the restaurants are already paying wages above minimum, but not as high as the $15.  Owners are saying that they will have to pass the higher cost of labor on and the cost of the food will go up for the consumer.  Many of the workers themselves buy the now inexpensive food , and they will be hurting themselves. Another complicated situation for people  who are more knowledgeable than I. I will leave you with a chart of minimum wages from around the world.  Interesting that there are seven higher than the United States. 

Namaste. . . .. . . .This is the United States