Editorial: American workers have come a long way. Yet many say they've had it with their jobs.

Every year, the Gallup organization asks Americans if they're engaged with their work. And for years now, many American workers have responded with an emphatic, 'No!' Employee engagement in the U.S. is hovering at its lowest level in more than a decade, Gallup reports. Workers on this Labor Day feel a growing sense of dissatisfaction and pessimism. Here's an idea that could help to lift those workplace blues: Take a ride to Milwaukee and check out the Grohmann Museum. This hidden gem houses a panorama of artwork tracing the evolution of human work back to the 1500s. It's inspiring - and instructive. While today's workers have reason to complain, by modern standards, the paintings and sculptures at the Grohmann reveal how workers of yesteryear had it a lot tougher on the job. Our workplaces have come a long way, considering where they started. At the museum, the Industrial Revolution comes to life in dark paintings showing heat, noise and pollution that practically jump off the canvas. A collection titled "Iron and Steel" uses fire-filled portraits to convey the dangers of steel mills, forge shops and foundries. "Misfortune at the Mine" shows a worker being rescued by colleagues after a serious accident underground. The "Agriculture and Construction" section reveals the immense scale and grueling toil behind long-ago projects like digging tunnels and canals by hand. Those realistic works contrast with more romantic views of farming, which some artists filtered through a bucolic lens that no doubt concealed a grimmer reality. The art about making beer similarly understates the risks of brewing in olden times - when workers were scalded with boiling liquids, suffocated with carbon dioxide from fermenting yeast and pelted with shrapnel when fragile, imperfect glass bottles exploded. Children worked, too. "Potato Harvest" shows kids digging in the fields alongside adults, and other images show children in cities working as newsboys, kitchen helpers and chimney sweeps. One artist behind those paintings was known for "shying away from social commentary of the poor conditions in which these children lived and worked," the museum reports. Another section features craftsmen, including the women who dominated textile production, as well as so-called "intellectual trades" like medicine. Advances in technology feature prominently, a reminder that today's anxieties about artificial intelligence had parallels in the past. Mercifully, American workplaces have evolved from the dangerous, unregulated environments so prominent in the Grohmann collection. While occupations like mining and construction remain risky today, extensive safety precautions have become routine. The museum also features photographic portraits of modern workers ranging from a firefighter and a trucker to a dairy farmer, showing hard hats, protective gloves and, in the case of a welder, a face shield with eye protection. Over the years, advocates won eight-hour workdays, overtime pay and minimum wages. Child labor is mostly illegal now, and programs like unemployment insurance provide a safety net that is frayed but still a lifesaver. Every working American today owes a debt to the working Americans of the past, not only for workplace protections but also for building the country and its world-beating economy. Free enterprise and a flexible workforce are among the nation's greatest strengths, and no one should take for granted that they will continue to be. One risk is the decline of a social contract rooted in basic fairness. Labor's share of the nation's wealth has fallen sharply in recent decades. Tax policy and technology have concentrated money into fewer, richer hands, more dependent on capital gains and corporate profits than wages for a day's work. Many workers say their wages have failed to keep up with inflation, and no one can say where the current boom in automation will end. Some farsighted experts have warned that AI could devastate the job market and widen the divisions that mark today's politics and society. The Grohmann Museum, named after its leading patron, Milwaukee businessman Eckhart Grohmann, sits on the campus of the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Part of its mission is giving students a better understanding of how their degrees can make a difference. No surprise given the huge corporate investments being made these days, the engineering curriculum leans heavily into AI. One lesson from the artwork is that humans are endlessly adaptable. "We give students an appreciation of where all this started and we're also focused on the future," museum Director James Kieselburg told us. "We're going to need human workers. There's only so much we can feed into a computer and expect to get out what we want." Like Kieselburg, we remain hopeful for the future, while also being mindful that America's famously productive workers are in a fragile state. Even as companies embed AI wherever possible to boost efficiency, employees using these tools aren't feeling especially efficient. They are showing markedly less enthusiasm for work, connection to company goals or willingness to go beyond basic responsibilities, as the Gallup survey reflects. For the first time since Gallup began asking the question in 2009, employees who say they are struggling on the job outnumber those who feel they're thriving. Unfortunately, the youngest workers show the biggest decline in engagement. In the Gallup research, they say no one at work cares about them, and complain about a lack of opportunities to learn and grow. U.S. workers want to understand both the direction of their companies and how they can build their careers, the analytics firm has found. About 35% of respondents said that, more than anything else, better communication would help them clarify expectations at work. Smaller percentages mentioned direction from leadership (7%), additional development (6%) or recognition and culture (5%) as ways to help them understand what's expected, according to Gallup. Most jobs aren't easy or stress-free, and employers can do a lot more to help their employees reengage, if only they would make it a priority. On this day honoring the contributions and achievements of American workers, here's hoping the immense progress they've made will continue. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com. Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved. This story was originally published September 7, 2026 at 5:19 AM.