Catholic Social Teaching Reminds Us Work And Human Dignity Are Connected
(ANALYSIS) As summer winds down and Americans gather with family and friends for barbecues and beach trips, the first Monday of September offers more than just a long weekend. Labor Day, often treated as the unofficial end of summer, has deeper roots. It’s a holiday born out of struggle — of marches, strikes and a nationwide push to recognize the dignity of workers.
While Labor Day’s origins are secular, the values behind the holiday resonate deeply with Catholic Social Teaching, which has for more than a century emphasized the moral and spiritual significance of work.
Work, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, is far more than a means to make money. It is a fundamental part of what it means to be human. From the very beginning of Scripture, man is called to labor — not as punishment, but as a form of participation in God’s ongoing creation.
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Genesis, for instance, says God placed Adam in the garden to “work it and keep it.” That divine mandate echoed throughout much of human history, reflected in Catholic teaching that upholds work as a sacred act. Pope John Paul II, in his 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens, wrote that work “is a fundamental dimension of human existence.”
He added: “As man, through his work, becomes more and more the master of the earth, and as he confirms his dominion over the visible world, again through his work, he nevertheless remains in every case and at every phase of this process within the Creator’s original ordering. And this ordering remains necessarily and indissolubly linked with the fact that man was created, as male and female, “in the image of God.”
In other words, the value of labor comes not from what it produces, but from the dignity of the person performing it.
That concept may feel distant from the modern economy, where automation and artificial intelligence are rapidly replacing humans. But the church insists on reminding us that workers are not units of labor. They are people — created in God’s image — whose rights and dignity must always come before profit.
In the United States, Labor Day became a national federal holiday in 1895 (and celebrated on the first Monday each September) after President Grover Cleveland signed a bill passed by Congress into law. Throughout most of the world, May 1 — known as International Workers’ Day or May Day — is recognized as a day set aside to honor wage earners.
Labor Day is also a good time to revisit Rerum Novarum, the 1891 encyclical by Pope Leo XIII that laid the groundwork for modern Catholic Social Teaching. Written during the Industrial Revolution, when factories dehumanized people and children were forced to work in horrible conditions, Rerum Novarum condemned the exploitation of laborers and called for just wages, safe working environments and the right of workers to organize.
While the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 did not directly involve a Catholic church, it had a significant connection to the Catholic community in New York through its largely Catholic immigrant workforce. Many victims had been recent immigrants from Italy and other parts of Europe. Their deaths had a profound impact on immigrant families and the wider Catholic community, who mourned the deaths of 146 workers — most of them young women.
Following the fire, the Catholic Church, alongside other religious groups, played a role in commemorating the victims and advocating for safer labor conditions. From tragedies like this emerged Dorothy Day, who co-founded the Catholic Worker movement with Peter Maurin in 1933. She actively supported labor strikers and provided meals for those workers.
“You can spend your own time agonizing or organizing,” Day famously said.
Nearly 100 years later, Day’s actions take us to the current pope. When Leo XIV was elected earlier this year, some asked whether he would be the “Labor pope.” That remains to be seen. In the meantime, we know this pope had already, by choosing the name Leo and his past statements, is committed to speaking out against injustice.
In today’s economy, where many people work multiple jobs and still struggle to support their families, the church’s call for a living wage — one that allows workers not only to survive but to live with dignity and flourish — carries renewed urgency. A minimum wage may fulfill legal obligations, but it often fails the moral test. A just wage, the church says, must be sufficient to support a family, offer stability and ensure a life consistent with human dignity.
This notion of a common good is central to how Catholics should view economics. Work is not a purely individual endeavor, but connects us to our communities and to broader society. What we do for a living, how we are compensated and how we are treated at work have a ripple effect. When workers are underpaid or disrespected, it erodes the social fabric. When companies value profits over people, the result is not just economic inequality, but a moral failure.
It is why Catholic Social Teaching includes a “preferential option for the poor,” a call to prioritize the needs of the vulnerable. That includes those who are unemployed or underemployed. Even those fortunate enough to have stable employment may be burdened by the pressure to constantly produce, leaving little time for rest, family or faith.
Rest, too, is part of the church’s understanding of human dignity. The Sabbath commandment isn’t just about going to church. It’s a recognition that we are more than what we produce. We are not machines. We need time to reflect and be with our loved ones. Pope Francis, in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, speaks of rest as part of a healthy rhythm of life, essential not only for individuals but for society and the environment as well.
Labor Day is not just a break from work. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the sacred value of labor, the rights of those who perform it and the kind of society we want to build.
Clemente Lisi is the executive editor at Religion Unplugged.