Is It Labour Or Work?

It's Labour Day as I write this. Labour is defined as productive work, especially manual work which is done for wages.

Given the choice, most of us would like to be able to define what we do on a daily basis as labour. But is it? Is what we do really considered labour? I am not asking the question as to whether you work or not, I am asking whether the work you do could be considered labour. My feeling is that if you don't come home at the end of the day sweaty, smelly and clothes dirty and you probably didn't do labour. If you sit at a computer terminal all day it's work, not labour.

Yet most of us enjoy the benefits of the Labour Day holiday regardless of whether we labour or simply work. Perhaps we don't give enough credit to the folks who do labour.

This year marks an increase in the minimum wage in the United States. The US federal minimum wage now stands at $7.25 per hour with a few exceptions. If you're a waiter or waitress in many states you might be paid as low as $2.65 per hour because you have the ability to earn tips. Those tips you earn become part of your hourly wage determination. However, if even with tips you still have not earned $7.25 per hour on average, your employer is required to make up the difference. But heaven help you if you're an agricultural worker in Massachusetts because you can be paid as low as $1.60 per hour (room and board may make up the difference).

It's rare that you see a white collar job for minimum wage. Minimum wage recipients are usually people who labour for a living. And why these people continue to work for such low wages might be a mystery for some, it's the difference between groceries on the table or not for others.

Unfortunately, some folks look down their noses at those who labour for a living. They look down their noses at the people who built their 5000 ft.² house, the people who carved their marble countertop, who make their yards look beautiful, who ensure their luxury cars continue to run well, who prepare their lunches in restaurants, who work in the blazing sun to harvest that lettuce in your salad, who catch the crab and caviar, who come running in the middle of the night when your toilet overflows, who repair the potholes on the streets and who handle airline baggage so that you and your family might vacation in a country where there is no minimum wage for workers who come home at the end of the day sweaty, smelly and clothes dirty.

There are people who work and then there are people who labour. If you can work from home as well as an office, it's probably work -- not labour.

There are families who depend on the fruits of labour -- the paycheck. The people who labour are willing to share their holiday with you. How about you cut a little slack for those folks whose jobs may not be as glamorous as yours but are equally as important. Every job serves someone else. That's an Attitude of Service.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE

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