Believe it or not, Monday is Labor Day.

A day dedicated to American workers, conveniently celebrated by giving American workers the day off.

And considering how much Americans work, we deserve it.

The average American puts in around 1,800 hours a year, which is more than workers in Canada, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom.

But apparently, that's not enough for WalletHub.

They recently ranked all 50 states based on things like employment rates, hours worked, commute times and how much free time people have.

And Michigan came in dead last.

Yep.

50th out of 50.

Behind Ohio.

Let that sink in.

Ohio.

We're not saying this study is wrong... we're just saying the researchers may want to check their methodology before Michigan residents start sending them strongly worded postcards.

According to the rankings, the 10 hardest-working states are:

South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming, Nebraska, Texas, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Georgia.

And at the bottom:

Michigan, Oregon, New Jersey, Ohio, Nevada, Rhode Island, California, New York, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Michigan residents everywhere are currently staring at this list and thinking:

“Wait... we're losing to Ohio at working now?”

But let's defend ourselves here.

Michigan isn't lazy.

Michigan is strategic.

We've spent generations perfecting the art of getting an enormous amount of work done while simultaneously complaining about how much work we're doing.

We build cars.

We make stuff.

We work in factories, hospitals, restaurants, schools, farms, offices, warehouses and every other place where somebody eventually says:

“We need this done yesterday.”

And let's not forget winter.

Michigan residents spend roughly half the year performing unpaid outdoor maintenance simply to keep our driveways, sidewalks and vehicles from being swallowed by ice and snow.

You try scraping two inches of ice off your windshield at 7:15 in the morning and then tell us we're not hard workers.

Plus, Michigan has something the Dakotas don't:

Construction season.

Actually, Michigan has several construction seasons.

There's road construction season.

There's road construction season after winter.

There's road construction season because the road construction season didn't finish.

And there's the mysterious season where orange barrels appear on a road that was perfectly fine yesterday.

That's work.

And then there's the commute.

If you've ever driven I-75, I-69, I-94 or practically any major Michigan highway during rush hour, you know that getting to work is sometimes a full-time job before your actual job even begins.

So maybe Michigan didn't come in last because we're lazy.

Maybe we're just efficient.

Maybe we're saying:

“Why work 60 hours when I can complain about working 40?”

And honestly, that's innovation.

Besides, Labor Day isn't supposed to be about winning a national competition for who can spend the most hours staring at a computer screen.

It's about American workers.

So whether you're working Monday, grilling Monday, watching football Monday, sitting on the boat Monday or pretending you have absolutely no idea where your boss is...

Enjoy the holiday.

And Michigan, don't feel bad about finishing 50th.

We're still No. 1 at several very important things:

Great Lakes.

Coney dogs.

Better Made.

Potholes.

And apparently...

Taking a four-day weekend seriously.

Happy Labor Day, Michigan.

Now get back to work.

Tuesday.

Probably.