Labor Day is more than a long weekend signaling the end of summer. It is an opportunity to celebrate the hard-won gains made by workers and unions over decades of advocacy and workplace action. Gains such as workplace safety and health, fair pay and restrictions on child labor. Today, most American workers take these bedrock labor protections, many of which were expanded beyond unionized workplaces during the New Deal, for granted and may be unfamiliar with the decades-long struggle.  

One woman who helped expand protections was Frances Perkins. Perkins was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, and was the Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This Labor Day, there is an effort to designate her homestead, in Newcastle, Maine, as a national monument. 

By building on the actions of unions and ordinary working people, Perkins helped embed critical programs such as Social Security and unemployment insurance, as well as basic labor standards protections such as minimum wage and the 40-hour work week, into the fabric of American law. Her guiding philosophy was that government had a responsibility to improve the lives of the people it governed.  

The protections for working people that she championed are still pillars of our workplaces today – but the need to push for equitable working conditions is not a thing of the past. It is ongoing, and every generation must continue to assess the workplace challenges of the day and find solutions to meet the need. 

The world of work has evolved dramatically since Perkins’ time. This has been especially noticeable since the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic laid bare the work-life dilemma faced by countless workers as they struggled to balance caregiving responsibilities and work and made it clear that labor laws needed to evolve to meet contemporary needs. 

One glaring gap in our current system was the absence of comprehensive paid family and medical leave. After many hours of testimony by workers, unions and businesses, and extensive legislative outreach and debate, the Maine Legislature passed a paid family and medical leave bill. 

On July 11, 2023, Gov. Janet Mills signed a budget that included the creation of a paid family and medical leave program, making Maine the 13th state to establish one. Beginning in 2026, eligible workers in the private and public sector will have up to 12 weeks of paid time off available to them for family or medical reasons including illness, to care for a relative, or for the birth of a child.  

Contributions to the program’s trust fund will begin in January 2025, and benefits are scheduled to begin in May 2026. Paid family and medical leave is about collective action – like Social Security, it involves all of us contributing toward the program to ensure that the benefit is there for you when you need it. 

And as MDOL works on rules to implement the program in a way that works for workers and businesses, we want to hear from you. In May, we released draft rules and received more than 1,000 comments from nearly 300 people. We read every comment and have put out an updated version of the rules for further public comment. I encourage you to read the rules and give us your feedback. To keep up to date on paid family and medical leave, visit maine.gov/paidleave/.  

As Perkins said, “There is always a large horizon … There is much to be done … It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.” 

None of us can predict what the workplace of the future will be, but we must all be prepared to meet inevitable changes. And like Perkins, we must actively listen to the voices and real-life experiences of workers to craft effective and lasting policies. Happy Labor Day.