Songs About Work

By the California Labor Lab Team

June 4, 2024

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

Listen to the full playlist on Spotify: