Led by 23-year-old Kate Mullany, the Collar Laundry Union forms in Troy, N.Y., and raises earnings for female laundry workers from $2 to $14 a week - 1864
Bricklayers begin working 8-hour days - 1867
Some 25,000 Paterson, N.J., silk workers strike for 8-hour work day and improved working conditions. Eighteen hundred were arrested over the course of the six-month walkout, led by the Wobblies. They returned to work on their employers’ terms - 1913
The federal minimum wage increases to $1.60 per hour - 1968
Int’l Brotherhood of Firemen & Oilers merges with Service Employees Int’l Union - 1995
Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services