Illinois REALTORS® headquarters in Springfield — including the Legal Hotline — will be closed Mon., Sept. 5 for the Labor Day holiday.

The office will reopen on Tues., Sept. 6. The Legal Hotline remains closed through Sept. 9.

History of Labor Day

While President Grover Cleveland signed the bill making Labor Day a national holiday in 1894, the roots of Labor Day began more than a decade earlier as municipalities and states celebrated workers with parades and picnics.

In fact, the holiday can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s, as manufacturing replaced agriculture as the main source of income for workers. In mines, mills and factories, many workers toiled 12 hour days and seven-day workweeks at low wages. Children as young five years old worked at a fraction of the salaries paid to adults.

Workers started to protest working conditions, and unions formed to help negotiate improvements for workers. On Sept. 5, 1882 in New York City, 10,000 workers took unpaid time off to participate in the first Labor Day parade, and workers in other cities across the country took notice. By 1887, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Colorado and Massachusetts created a Labor Day holiday, and by 1894, 23 other states followed suit.

In 1968, the Uniform Holiday Act moved several major holidays to Mondays so that federal employees could have more three-day weekends, including Labor Day. Read more about the subject at the U.S. Department of Labor website.