By the California Labor Lab Team
June 4, 2024 | Last updated June 29, 2025
Below is a list of songs about work, inspired by our annual conference.
- 9 to 5 — Dolly Parton
- More Than A Paycheck — Sweet Honey In The Rock
- Industrial Disease — Dire Straits
- Working In The Coal Mine — Lee Dorsey
- Salt Of The Earth — The Rolling Stones
- Working Man Blues — Merle Haggard
- Manic Monday — The Bangles
- Working on the Highway — Bruce Springsteen
- Workin' Day and Night — Michael Jackson
- Don't Talk To Me About Work — Lou Reed
- She Works Hard For The Money — Donna Summer
- On the Railroad — The Longest Johns
- Everybody's Working Hard — Pippa Hoover
- Bang The Drum All Day — Todd Rundgren
- It's Five O'Clock Somewhere — Alan Jackson, Jimmy Buffett
- Joe Hill — Joan Baez
- Work — Rihanna, Drake
- BREAK MY SOUL — Beyoncé
- Welcome To The Working Week — Elvis Costello
- Maggie's Farm — Bob Dylan
- Working Class Hero — Green Day
- Working Man's Blues — The Devil Makes Three
- We Just Come to Work Here, We Don't Come to Die — Anne Feeney
- Pay Me My Money Down · Ranky Tanky
- Step By Step — Sweet Honey In The Rock
- There Is Power in a Union — Billy Bragg
- Bread and Roses — Dawn Landes, Alana Amram & Abigail Chapin
- Union Sundown — Bob Dylan
- Freelance — Toro y Moi
- A Hard Day's Night — The Beatles
- Drivin' My Life Away — Eddie Rabbitt
- The Working Man — Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Union Maid — Old Crow Medicine Show
- Underdog — Alicia Keys
- Let's Work Together — Wilbert Harrison
- Ten Men Workin' — Neil Young
- Solidarity Forever — Pete Seeger
- Working on the Road — Ten Years After
- Work Song — Nina Simone
- Working At The Factory — The Kinks
- Work from Home — Fifth Harmony feat. Ty Dolla $ign
- Workin For A Livin — Huey Lewis & The News
- Watch Me Work — Andrew Rannells & Brianna Mazzola
- Allentown — Billy Joel
- Hustlin' — Rick Ross
- One Piece At A Time — Johnny Cash
- Takin' Care of Business — Bachman Turner Overdrive
- 1913 Massacre — Woody Guthrie
- Mannington Mine Disaster — Hazel Dickens
- VDT — Tom Juravich
- Never Cross a Picket Line — Billy Bragg
- Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) — Marvin Gaye
- Career Opportunities — The Clash
- Livin' For The Weekend — The O'Jays
- Take This Job And Shove It — Johnny Paycheck
- Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da — The Beatles
- Somebody's Watching Me — Rockwell
- Technologic — Daft Punk
- TV Monitoring Station — John McElhenney
- Technology — Big Block Singsong
- We Gotta Get Out Of This Place — The Animals
- Angel From Montgomery — John Prine
- Working Girl Blues — Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard
- Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald — Gordon Lightfoot
- Nightshift — Commodores
- Livin' on a Prayer — Bon Jovi
- Sixteen Tons — Tennessee Ernie Ford
- We Are the Children — Chris Iijima, Nobukoo Miyamoto & Charlie Chin
- Pat Works on the Railway — Cisco Houston
- Casey Jones — Johnny Cash
- Hard Times in the Mill — Pete Seeger
- The Jam On Gerry's Rock — The Wakami Wailers
- Blow the Man Down — Jordan Dykstra & Brian McOmber
- Waulking Song — Dóchas
- Hard Hat And A Hammer — Alan Jackson
- Shiftwork — Kenny Chesney
- 50,000 Lumberjacks — Joe Glazer
- I Am a Union Woman — Aunt Molly Jackson & John Greenway
- Workin' Woman Blues — Valerie June
- Working for the Knife — Mitski
- Working for the Weekend — Loverboy
- Working Girl — Cher
- My Job — Cam'ron
- Work Song — The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
- Work to Do — Average White Band
Listen to the full playlist on Spotify: