What is Labor Day?

4. Labor Day Becomes an Official Federal Holiday

On June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland officially signed a declaration that Labor Day a was to be a national holiday. However, five states had already designated Labor Day a public holiday in 1887. Oregon was the first, with Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Colorado also recognizing the holiday the same year. Before Cleveland signed the declaration, 25 additional states passed legislation acknowledging Labor Day as an official holiday. One group of historians believes that Cleveland’s motivation to sign the national proclamation was to avoid losing the “working man’s” vote. In 1894, as a response to the lowering of worker wages, thousands of workers from the American Railway Union and the Pullman Palace Car Company decided to strike, severely disrupting rail traffic in the Midwest. Cleveland signed the declaration during the disruption.