🎉 Happy Labor Day!

On Labor Day, people across the country take an extra day to celebrate the contributions of America’s workers. This country simply would not be what it is, and this holiday wouldn’t exist, without the gains made by working people. At the Department of Labor, every day we fight for workers with the same passion and commitment that they themselves bring to driving innovation and sustaining the communities they call home. 

By expanding overtime protections, protecting retirement savings, conducting safety inspections, securing back wages, or conducting any of the many tasks our department is entrusted to carry out, our work betters the lives of America’s workers, families and communities. Whatever your relationship is to work in America, I hope you can take a moment this weekend to look back over the past year and feel proud of our collective achievements. Wishing you a joyful Labor Day from all of us here at the Department of Labor!

–Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su

This Labor Day, we're recognizing efforts to build an equitable and empowered workforce. Explore the history of Labor Day and learn some of the ways we’re supporting and expanding good job opportunities around the country.

On Labor Day, we celebrate America’s workers and labor advocates, including the millions who have fought for better pay, better working conditions, dignity and respect. Watch a message from some of our leaders.

Labor unions made the headlines this year more than once, but those headlines hardly begin to tell the story of all the advances unions brought to workers in 2024. Across the country, in workplaces large and small, workers moved the economic needle through their collective voices and by the unions they chose to represent them. We’re highlighting a few of the many gains that you should know about this Labor Day.

We kicked off Labor Rights Week 2024 with an event celebrating our 20-year partnership with the Embassy of Mexico to protect and promote workers’ rights through the Consular Partnership Program. The program now includes agreements with more countries throughout Latin America, including a new agreement with Columbia announced this week. We joined those countries at dozens of other events across the nation to spread the word that all workers in the U.S. have rights on the job.

• Release: Read more about the Labor Rights Week kick-off
• Blog: Empowering workers’ voices through partnership 
• Blog: Why language access matters for workplace safety 

In Chicago this week, Acting Secretary Su met with workers and advocates at the Care Can’t Wait Conference to highlight ways the Biden-Harris administration is supporting care workers, including our publication of domestic worker sample agreements earlier this year. She also laid out the administration’s vision for paid leave and care and provided keynote remarks at the United Autoworkers’ Women’s Conference on our efforts to increase the retention of women in the workplace.

In Virginia this week, Acting Secretary Su joined Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, Rep. Bobby Scott and others to discuss how we’re expanding pathways to good jobs through apprenticeship. We also presented $6 million in Apprenticeship Building American grants to the Hampton Roads Workforce Council to help expand Registered Apprenticeship programming and boost public-private partnerships.

While in Orlando, Acting Secretary Su spoke at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades to discuss how the Department of Labor is working to create good union jobs for workers across the country.

We made more than $4 million in funding available to support storm recovery work this week, including:

• $2.8 million for disaster recovery following severe winter storms in California 
• $1.1 million for storm recovery in Florida
• $800,000 to help fund Georgia’s Hurricane Debby cleanup and recovery 

A Chicago countertop manufacturer faces more than $1 million in proposed penalties for not protecting workers from silica dust, including two with incurable lung disease.

La Tolteca Authentic Mexican Restaurant in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, unlawfully withheld workers' tips and failed to pay overtime, leading to a $1.3 million judgment for 51 workers.

Postpartum mental health conditions affect many new mothers, and the Family and Medical Leave Act helps protect them.

On Women’s Equality Day, Women’s Director Wendy Chun-Hoon reflected on the department’s efforts to ensure equity in all fields.

Fifteen New York gas stations must pay over $1 million in back wages and damages to more than 100 workers after our Wage and Hour Division found wage violations.

Good jobs are changing lives. Here are a few ways we're working to make sure there are more good jobs for more people all around the country.

How to have a great Labor Day, from @USDOL ⬆️
-@ActSecJulieSu

• WEKU: Mine Safety and Health Administration officials working to decrease accidental fatalities, respiratory illnesses in Appalachian miners
• The Steubenville Herald-Star: Labor Rights Week reminds federal law protects everyone
• The Spooner Advocate: Protecting Wisconsin workers from heat is a hot topic
• The Sanibel Captiva: Teens’ first jobs must be safe jobs