Labor day 1st became a holiday in 1894. Labor Day became a holiday due to the kids and adults that worked for around 12 hours a day for 7 days a week.
They had little kids from the age of 5 working in factories they weren't even earning that much money. They were earning a fraction of their adults counterparts' wages. Almost everyone that was working was most likely working in a unhealthy atmosphere. They had limited amount of fresh air. That also meant they were working in some harsh conditions.
Labor day was created by the Labor movement in the late 19th century. Labor day is always on the first Monday of September. In 1894 Grover Cleveland made Labor day a federal holiday. The first Labor day was on September 5, 1882. On the first Labor day there were many speeches and an abundance of cigars. It was a big celebrations for the workers that had to work everyday.
Beginning in the late 19th century, as the trade union and labor movements grew, different groups of trade unionists chose a variety of days on which to celebrate labor. In the United States and Canada, a September holiday, called Labor or Labor Day, was first proposed in the 1880's. In 1882, Matthew Maguire, a machinist, first proposed a Labor Day holiday while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union (CLU) of New York. Some maintain that Peter J. McGuire of the American Federation of Labor put forward the first proposal in May 1882, after witnessing the annual labor festival held in Toronto, Canada. In 1887 Oregon became the first state of the United States to make Labor Day an official public holiday. By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty U.S. states officially celebrated Labor Day. Thus by 1887 in North America, Labor Day was an established, official holiday.
Following the deaths of workers at the hands of United States Army and United States Marshals Service during the Pullman Strike of 1894 in Chicago, the United States Congress unanimously voted to approve legislation to make Labor Day a national holiday and President Grover Cleveland signed it into law six days after the end of the strike. Cleveland supported the creation of the national holiday in an attempt to shore up support among trade unions following the Pullman Strike. The date of May 1 ancient European holiday known as May Day) was an alternative date, celebrated then as International Workers Day, but President Cleveland was concerned that observance of Labor Day on May 1 would encourage Haymarket-style protests and would strengthen socialist and anarchist movements that, though distinct from one another, had rallied to commemorate the Haymarket Affair on International Workers' Day. All U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the United States territories have made Labor Day a statutory holiday.