Employment & Labor Insider

In 2020, I did a Labor Day Quiz, but it was short and not very hard. Today's quiz is the "pro" version. 

How much do you know about Labor Day? Take our quiz and find out! As always, the answers appear at the end of each question, so you can cheat all you want, and we'll never know. If you make it to the end, there will be a special Labor Day prize, chosen especially for you.

Ready? Here we go!

No. 1: What is the busiest travel weekend of the year in the United States?

A. July 4

B. Christmas

C. Labor Day

D. Presidents' Day

ANSWER: C. July 4 and Christmas don't always fall on weekends, silly. And, for some reason, people aren't dying to make road trips in the middle of February. Go figure.

No. 2: What must you always put away immediately after the Labor Day weekend?

A. The kegs that once contained all the beer you drank on Monday.

B. White shoes.

C. Monday's leftover burgers, dogs, baked beans, and chips . . . *urp*.

D. Your yacht, for the winter.

Answer: B, of course!!!! Yes, "no white shoes after Labor Day" is still the rule, according to Miss Manners, who is the authority on what's tacky and what's not. ("C" is also a good answer.)

No. 3: What was the first U.S. state to make Labor Day an official holiday?

A. New York

B. Michigan

C. Massachusetts

D. Ohio

E. Oregon

F. One of those other states where it's cold and they have a lot of unions

ANSWER: E, believe it or not. Oregon created an official state Labor Day holiday in 1887, several years before the U.S. Congress made it a federal holiday. But, in defense of our Northern friends, the first Labor Day parade was held in New York City on September 5, 1882. And Oregon gets cold in the winter. Kind of.

No. 4: Match the workplace law with its year of enactment:

ANSWER:

In case you can't follow my scrawly lines: Fair Labor Standards Act (1938), National Labor Relations Act (1935), Title VII (1964), Occupational Safety and Health Act (1970), Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967), Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), Family and Medical Leave Act (1993).

Not much in our century so far, but the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which accounts for 1 zillionth of all discrimination charges, was enacted in 2008.

No. 5: In 2021, what percentage of Americans were unhappy with their jobs?

A. 10 percent

B. 25 percent

C. 80 percent

D. 100 percent

ANSWER: C, according to Antimaximalist, which provides no substantiation for this "fact." (Scroll down to Question 40.) And no wonder -- I am sure they can't, because that 80 percent figure is obviously ridiculous and made-up. As we all know, everybody hates their job (Answer D).

6. What nation was the first to have an official Labor Day?

A. Canada

B. The United States

C. The Soviet Union

D. Germany

E. Cuba

ANSWER: B. For those of you who thought A was the correct answer, you are wrong. Canada's holiday is "Labour" Day. The question was which country had the first "Labor" Day. Read more carefully! 

*wipes tear from eye*

But seriously, if the U.S. Department of Labor and The Canadian Encyclopedia are right, then the United States actually did beat Canada by one month. Labor Day became a U.S. holiday on June 28, 1894, and Labour Day became a Canadian holiday almost a month later, on July 23, 1894. The Canadian holiday, like the U.S. holiday, is celebrated on the first Monday in September.

HOWDJA DO?

5-6 correct: Employee of the month!

3-4 correct: Give that smarty a raise!

1-2 correct: Barely meets expectations, but that's good enough in this post-COVID era of labor (or labour) shortages.

0 correct: We wish you the best in your future endeavors.

Just kidding! You all did great! And here is that special Labor Day prize I promised you:

Happy Labor Day weekend, everybody!