Labor Day 2025

THIRTY THOUSAND people marched in Union Square on September 5, 1882. They demanded an eight hour workday, better treatment of immigrants, an end to child labor, and equal pay for equal work.
These basic demands continue to be more urgent than ever.

The 2025 NYC Labor Day Parade will be on:

Saturday, September 6th
Parade steps off at 10:00 A.M. from Fifth Avenue and 44th Street
Details here.

Find LaborArts images from Labor Day parades past here. Our collection highlights a scattering of years, based not on the size of the parade, but on the quality of the photos available. Beyond the iconic 1882 illustration, two clusters of photos stand out, one from 1968 and the other from 1981.

May Day is the other workers’ holiday – it too has origins in the late 19th century and in the fight for an 8-hour day. See this LaborArts selection of twenty eight May Day images.

CELEBRATE LABOR DAY by sending a book filled with the faces and voices of the immigrants, activists, organizers, and ordinary people who together built the greatest city in the world. Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives — A Pictorial History of Working People in New York City.

SEE historian Joshua Freeman’s​ essay “Labor Day – From Protest to Picnics” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website.

DISCOVER a wealth of Labor History resources on the Labor and Working Class History Association website, beautifully illustrated with May Day images from the 1880s by Walter Crane.

FIND lesson plans, activities, and resources for teachers on the American Labor Studies Center website.