Daily AncestorDay laborer
A day laborer was a worker hired and paid by the day for odd jobs, with no promise of steady work.
Day laborers did whatever manual work was available: digging, hauling, loading, harvest work. They were paid at the end of each day and had to look for work again the next.
The 1900 census instructions told enumerators not to write just laborer but to say what kind, such as day laborer, farm laborer or garden laborer.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1880 to 1920 census
Michl. Burke, 36, Day laborer, Ireland
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Day laborer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/day-laborer. Last checked 2026-10-01.