Laboring more, vacationing less this Labor Day

While many Americans get Labor day off, some still punching the timecard today.

News Channel 3’s Caitlin Thropay went around the Coachella Valley to see who was busy at work.

Labor Day is one of the most common paid holidays in the U.S.

According to research from Bloomberg BNA, 97% of employers give Labor Day off to some of their employees, whether that be full or part-time employees. Still, 41% of those businesses still require some staff on-hand during the holiday.

While some are required to work, others chose to be there.

“I actually chose to work on Labor Day,” Ben and Jerry’s general manager, Jason Ackley told News Channel 3 while scooping up some ice cream. “I love my job. I love Ben and Jerry’s. Who doesn’t?” he added.

From scooping ice cream to public safety. Many Americans are celebrating a day meant to honor the American labor movement by going to work, some to help keep the public safe.

“Of course I am working today. I work seven days a week, 365 days a year,” Christopher Boccia said, who works as a security guard.

For Christopher, he said, it’s just the nature of his job.

“The general nature of security is throughout the whole year you have to keep everything safe. Regardless, someone has to be there 24 hours. There is going to be another guard here later and another guard at night,” Boccia said.

For some, the monetary benefits of working on a holiday outweigh taking a day off.

“If I was off, I would still come in,” Audrianna Hayes who works at the Starbucks in the Palm Springs airport told us. “The pay is always more so you definitely can’t complain about that,” she added.

We also met with a volunteer at Eisenhower and for her, she wanted to work today simply out of love for what she does.

“Well I enjoy working with my friends and I enjoy working at Eisenhower so it’s just like any other day that I volunteer,” Annette Cortese said.

She delivers newspapers to patients, and she told us she handed out over 100 of them to patients in the hospital on Monday.

“As long as patients are here, volunteers have to be here and doctors have to be here,” Cortese said.

Whether you had the choice to work today or not, Labor Day marks a day to celebrate hard work and also a farewell to summer.

“Everyone is excited. It’s a day off, right before school gets started so it’s the last big hooray for everybody so it’s a pretty good day,” Ackley said.

It’s also good to see so many people positive about the work they do. Americans have been celebrating this holiday for over 130 years.