Why do we celebrate
Labor Day?
BY IVY MOORE Features Contributor Traditionally, Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer, but officially the day honors working people. Labor Day began on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City when approximately 10,000 oppressed laborers marched down Broadway in protest of unsafe working conditions, long hours (12 hours a day, 7 days a week), low pay and child labor. They carried signs including the most memorable: Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for recreation. The improvement in working conditions is due almost exclusively to the work of the labor unions of the time. Just three years after the march, cities around the U.S. were observing the working man’s holiday; Oregon was the first state to make Labor Day an official holiday in
1887. By 1894, 31 states had made Labor Day an official day off to honor working people. It had not been an easy achievement. Railroad employees who worked for George Pullman saw their wages cut while the rent on their homes — owned by Pullman — was raised and their working conditions continued to be intolerable. Those issues and the firing of union representatives seemed to be the final indignity visited on the workers. Fully 50,000 workers boycotted trains with Pullman cars, completely stalling rail traffic into and out of Chicago – there was no mail delivered to Chicagoans. The effects of the boycott spread around the country. When the public learned the reasons for the boycott, President Grover Cleveland proclaimed the first Monday in September a national holiday.
Job and income totals by county in greater region BY BRUCE MILLS bruce@theitem.com
Below are official job totals within the various county boundary lines in the greater Midlands region for 2018, excluding military employment – such as at Shaw Air Force Base – which is not tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Per capita personal income totals for 2017 for the various counties are also provided. State totals for each indicator are also listed. The annual totals are the most current available by the official sources.
County
Total jobs within county
Per capita personal income
Sumter
37,801
Clarendon
6,879
$36,887
Lee
3,725
Kershaw
17,391
Florence
64,750
Orangeburg
28,472
Richland
223,063
Lexington
119,817
South Carolina
2,092,727
(excluding military) (2018)
Sources: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for job totals; Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) for income totals.
Income (2017)
$32,037 $31,616 $39,842 $40,411 $32,668 $43,863 $44,497 $41,659 = 20,000
= $20,000