Definition
A laborer is a person who earns a livelihood by performing manual work or physical toil for an employer — typically work requiring bodily strength rather than specialized skill or training. The term is foundational to mechanic's lien statutes, wage preference laws, immigration laws, and labor regulation, where its precise scope determines who qualifies for statutory protections.
Two related but distinct legal senses operate in the sources:
1. General employment sense: Any person who performs work and labor as a means of livelihood for those who employ them. This broad reading encompasses anyone trading their labor for compensation, without strict limitation to unskilled physical work.
2. Statutory preference and lien sense: A more restricted class — workers performing toilsome physical labor requiring strength rather than skill — as distinguished from artisans, mechanics, contractors, or professionals. Under this narrower reading, a skilled tradesperson may not qualify as a "laborer" for purposes of lien priority or wage exemption statutes. Whether a given worker falls inside or outside this line depends on the specific statutory language and the jurisdiction's construction of it.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): One who labors; one who uses bodily strength rather than intellect to earn a wage, usually paid hourly.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): One who labors in a toilsome occupation; a person who does work requiring strength rather than skill, as distinguished from an artisan.
The common definition and the narrower legal definition largely align — both reserve "laborer" for unskilled or semi-skilled physical workers. The research trap lies in the broader legal sense: many courts and statutes use "laborer" expansively to include virtually any employee who performs work for compensation, collapsing the artisan/laborer distinction the common definition preserves. A researcher relying on ordinary meaning to predict statutory coverage will sometimes be right and sometimes badly wrong, depending entirely on which definition the jurisdiction has adopted.
Common Confusion
LABORER vs. ARTISAN vs. MECHANIC: These three terms are frequently used in proximity in lien statutes, wage laws, and historical labor legislation, and courts have not treated them as synonymous. An artisan applies skill acquired through training; a mechanic performs work governed by technical knowledge of a trade; a laborer, in the strict sense, performs physical work not requiring such training. The distinction matters because many statutory protections — lien preferences, wage exemption orders, immigration classifications — attach to one category but not another. Historical sources and older statutes often use these terms without definition, leaving the boundary to judicial construction that varied widely by jurisdiction and era.
Why It Matters in Research
The word "laborer" is a deceptively simple term that carries significant definitional weight across several distinct bodies of law. Researchers face three recurring problems:
First, the broad/narrow split is unresolved across jurisdictions and time periods. A case construing "laborer" under a mechanic's lien statute may define the term narrowly (unskilled physical work only), while a case under a wage preference statute in the same state may read it broadly (any employee performing compensated work). Neither definition automatically controls the other. Check the specific statutory context before relying on any precedent.
Second, historical immigration law used "laborer" as a term of art with significant legal consequences. Federal immigration statutes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — including the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Contract Labor laws — restricted entry of "laborers" while exempting merchants, teachers, and other classes. Courts construed "laborer" narrowly or broadly depending on enforcement context. Researchers working in immigration history or civil rights history should expect definitional instability.
Third, the English statutory background referenced in both editions of Black's — distinguishing a laborer (not dwelling in the employer's home) from a domestic servant — has essentially no modern American relevance, but it surfaces in older English-derived materials and can mislead researchers tracing colonial or early American labor law.
The corpus connections are practical: lien law research requires distinguishing laborers from subcontractors and materialmen; collective bargaining research requires distinguishing laborers from supervisors and independent contractors; public sector labor law adds another layer of classification for statutory coverage purposes.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries are in substantial agreement on the core definition: a laborer is one who performs work and labor for an employer as a means of livelihood, with an emphasis on physical rather than intellectual effort.
Bouvier adds the most analytically useful gloss, noting both the English tradition (a servant in husbandry or manufacture not living within the employer's household) and the Pennsylvania judicial construction (one who performs with his own hands the contract he made with his employer). The "with his own hands" formulation is particularly significant: it distinguishes laborers from contractors who direct others' work, a distinction that recurs in lien law disputes.
Both editions of Black's note the tension between the general employment sense and the narrower statutory sense without fully resolving it. Black's 2nd Edition cites a broader range of cases reflecting genuine jurisdictional divergence on the question of whether artisans and skilled workers qualify.
All three sources reflect their era's assumptions about the nature of work — the artisan/laborer line made more intuitive sense when trades were rigidly stratified. Modern labor law has largely abandoned this taxonomy in favor of the employee/independent contractor distinction, making the historical sources less useful for contemporary practice but essential for understanding the evolution of lien statutes, wage laws, and early labor regulation.
Jurisdictional Note
The scope of "laborer" for mechanic's lien and wage preference purposes remains a matter of state law and varies materially. Some states have expanded statutory definitions to encompass all employees performing compensated work; others retain the narrower physical-labor-without-skill construction. Federal law uses the term in specific statutory contexts — including the Davis-Bacon Act's prevailing wage requirements — with its own definitions that do not automatically translate to state law contexts.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Employment & Labor Law Encyclopedia: "The Railway Labor Act and Transportation Industry Labor Law"; "Public Sector Labor Relations"
The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia: "Employment Contracts — Collective Bargaining Agreements and Labor Contracts"