It’s the first Monday in September.   Which means it’s Labor Day.  If you grew up in NY City, then, you know it’s been a holiday for 135 years.   But, it took more than a few years for it to become a national holiday.

And, given the predilections of today’s society, I can see it becoming like Lincoln’s Birthday- or is that Lincoln?   (In other words, dead and buried.)   Because we no longer seem to value labor in our society.

After all, firms think nothing of paying their corporate executives 100X, 250X, even 500X the average wages they provide their staff.  Like it’s the executive that is making the difference and not the employees who deliver the services or make the products sold by the firm.  And, then hear business leaders complain that there is no gain in productivity- even though their firms don’t invest a penny in new technology to make the company more efficient.  (Unless they can find a way to replace the employee with a machine.)

Personally, I have been both labor and I have been the “man”. (To be honest, I spent a lot more time in my life as the “man”, but, hopefully, I was an enlightened version of a boss.) I’ve written before about my first real job– working in a dry cleaning store… But, I was only “labor” in that situation for about a year- I had become assistant manager after that first year.

My next non-entrepreneurial venture (by this time, there were at least four entrepreneurial gigs) had me working as a waiter for a catering hall. It was a union gig. (To be honest, the union wasn’t an omnipresent focus on the job.) After a few years (I think it was three), I became shop steward (Local 923) and eventually an officer (Treasurer) of the union.  But I resigned that position almost immediately upon my election.  I had developed an inherent conflict, since  I had just joined the management team of that same catering hall.

As an employer, I never paid anyone the minimum wage. There were a few reasons for that. For starters, most folks can’t make ends meet getting paid that little. (I do admit that it was easier to do so some 30 years ago, but…)

I also never hired the “just adequate”, but searched for those with a little bit more.  That quest matches one of my eMail signatures:

The difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary is just that little bit “extra”. Let’s aim for the extraordinary!

And, as an employer, I always made sure our firm shared its profits with our employees- at least, with those that were around for at least 18 months.

Nowadays, it seems that Labor Day is only the separation point between summer vacation and the first day of school for our public schools.   Except this year, I’ve notice a slew of schools that started their year last week!

I still believe in Labor.  Even unions.  Let’s not forget that most of the profits that McDonald’s and WalMart proclaim are the result of paying their employees non-living wages and forcing you and me (the citizens of the US) to provide AFDC, Welfare, SNAP (aka Food Stamps) and other subsidies for these employees.  It’s time for us to claw back those funds from McDonald’s (and WalMart and every other firm that pays minimum wage or smidge more than that) leaving us to pick up the rest of the tab.

Now, that will be something really good for labor!

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