Good morning.

It’s Labor Day in the United States! Ohh yeah!

A holiday honoring workers.

So naturally, Still Monday prepared work for you to read.

We’ll keep this one shorter… promise.

It would be deeply embarrassing to publish a productivity guide today.

And if you’ve been reading Still Monday since we started: thank you.

We’re only a few issues in, and some of you have already written back to tell us you’re enjoying it. That makes us ridiculously happy.

Keep voting. Keep replying. We’re reading all of it.

Now, it’s Labor Day. A holiday honoring workers.

So naturally, Still Monday prepared work for you to read.

Labor Day didn’t begin as a mattress sale.

There were no SUVs marked down $4,000.

Nobody had invented:

LABOR DAY SAVINGS EVENT

Workers created it.

The first Labor Day celebration took place in New York City on September 5, 1882.

Thousands of workers marched in a parade organized by the Central Labor Union.

The idea spread.

Oregon became the first state to formally recognize Labor Day in 1887.

Other states followed.

Then, in 1894, Congress made the first Monday of September a legal holiday.

The point was straightforward:

Recognize the social and economic contribution of workers.

More than 140 years later, work looks completely different.

Slack.

Zoom.

Global teams.

Remote work.

Automation.

Career coaches.

People who describe themselves as “fractional.”

The underlying question hasn’t changed much:

What should people reasonably expect in exchange for giving a large portion of their lives to work?

Money, obviously.

But also time.

Safety.

Dignity.

Opportunity.

Some degree of control.

Maybe a manager who doesn’t message “quick question” at 6:47 PM.

Labor Day isn’t anti-work.

It exists because work matters enough to argue about how it should work.

Today, the official Still Monday position is considerably simpler:

If you have the day off...

Take the day off.

Corporate America will survive until Tuesday.

Probably.

September 5, 1882.

Tuesday.

So the first Labor Day wasn’t even on Monday.

We’ve been misled.

Oregon became the first U.S. state to formally recognize Labor Day in 1887.

New York had introduced legislation earlier.

Oregon enacted theirs first.

Excellent follow-through.

U.S. federal law generally does not require private employers to pay employees for holidays they don’t work.

It also does not automatically require premium pay simply because somebody works on a holiday.

Company policy, contracts, overtime rules and state law can change what applies.

This has been today’s least festive paragraph.

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It’s Labor Day.

Close the productivity app. Leave Notion alone.

Your inbox will continue reproducing without supervision.

We’ll try again tomorrow.

PD. But… read this issue.

If you’re working today, don’t assume Labor Day automatically means time-and-a-half.

For many private-sector workers, holiday pay depends on employer policy, employment agreements, union contracts, overtime rules and applicable state law.

So if your employer offers:

TIME AND A HALF ON HOLIDAYS

Great.

That’s compensation.

It isn’t a universal federal guarantee.

Sometimes the least exciting workplace knowledge prevents the most exciting payroll argument.

Thank you for your email.

I’m currently away for Labor Day.

I will respond when I return on Tuesday.

If this is urgent, please reconsider whether it actually is.

They included festivals afterward so workers and their families could enjoy themselves.

Which means one of the earliest Labor Day instructions was essentially:

Stop working, go have fun.

For once, we have no edits.

One small favor before you disappear for the day.

If Still Monday has made your workweek a little more interesting, send it to someone you work with.

Forward this issue. Drop it in the group chat. Send it to the coworker who could use a better distraction between meetings.

And tell them to subscribe.

We’d like this office to get a little more crowded.

Technically Monday. Emotionally a federal holiday.

See you Tuesday.

— The Still Monday Desk