Forum Editorial: Appreciating workers on Labor Day

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In addition to being the last chance to show off our shining white summer polos (without committing a major fashion faux pas, anyway), Labor Day, more importantly, is a national tribute to the American worker.

From the assembly line to the classroom to the cash register, the American worker wears many faces — all of whom are essential to our communities.

That was never clearer in recent times than during the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, when we both came to rely on more workers than ever in ways we never had before, and found that there were more needs than there were workers.

Today, both across the country and right here in our northwest Missouri communities, there remains a critical shortage of essential workers — at our factories, in our schools, in our stores and more.

And yet, it also remains a difficult environment for the American worker. According to the Pew Research Center, middle class households accounted for nearly two-thirds of all household income across the country in 1970.

Fifty years later, it was down to 42 percent.

The cost of sending a child to a two- or four-year public college, meanwhile, climbed nearly 2½ times higher during that period, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and the median cost to purchase a home has more than doubled when adjusted for inflation, according to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.

As it was on the first national Labor Day in 1894, it is now, still, a struggle to be a worker. Some things don’t change.

Though the challenge to build a better, easier world for our children remains an uphill battle, it is just as clear today as it ever has been that the American worker remains the engine that continues to drive our communities forward and push us ever higher.

On Labor Day, we rest and we celebrate the achievements of workers everywhere, and to everyone working on the holiday or who has spent too long at a job unthanked and unappreciated, we thank you.

Happy Labor Day.