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More Should Celebrate Today

For millions of workers nationwide – and a fair amount in Chautauqua County – today provides a much-needed working man’s holiday.

Such a day was a welcome break for the working man in 1894, when Labor Day was approved as a federal holiday by Congress and signed into law by President Grover Cleveland. It was a time of low unemployment and a hard fight by organized labor to bring the working man improved safety and fair wages for the labor upon which the nation was built. We hope, then, that those workers out there who are enjoying this three-day weekend are enjoying their hard-earned respite from their job.

It is unfortunate, though, that not as many are enjoying this Labor Day as it was originally intended. The most recent state Labor Department statistics show 200 fewer jobs in Chautauqua County than there were a year ago. The county’s unemployment rate of 6.2 percent is 1.2 percent higher than the state’s unemployment rate, while federal statistics show the county’s labor force has decreased from 66,781 in 2007, before the 2008 recession, to 57,727 at the end of 2014.

Fewer jobs and higher unemployment are not the American Dream envisioned by our founding fathers. The fight for higher minimum wages, particularly as has happened concerning the fast food industry in New York state over the past year, should serve as a wake-up call for any elected official that we must do better at the federal, state and local level to do all we can to bring more jobs – both skilled and unskilled – to our local economies. The best way to do that will be the focus of much debate in the coming year’s presidential election. Some will argue for right-to-work laws, lower taxes on businesses and a cut in regulations. Others will say increasing wages through an increased minimum wage and the associated pressure to increase all wages will put more spendable money into the economy and create jobs.

These debates are messy and contentious, but on one thing we should all be able to agree – it would be wonderful if there were more workers in Chautauqua County enjoying Labor Day next year than there are in 2015.

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