With Labor Day coming up this weekend, our thoughts turn to barbecues, the beach, and catching the last rays of summer. But Labor Day is actually a holiday steeped in the history of the American labor movement, created in response to unions’ demands that the U.S. government recognize ordinary working people’s contribution to the strength and prosperity of America. With that in mind, see how much you know about the history of Labor Day — and the labor issues that continue to galvanize today's unions.
One of the key events that led to federal recognition of Labor Day was the nationwide Pullman railroad strike in in 1894.
The labor movement is still going strong more than a century after the first Labor Day. See how much you know about the issues affecting workers today:
Read more about the state of the federal minimum wage
Get the whole story on Seattle's minimum wage hike
Read more about the NLRB's ruling
Now that you have a sense of Labor Day’s connection to the labor movement, here’s one question about a topic more typically associated with the holiday – summer fashion.