In 2013, it's difficult to believe that in most of the country, it's legal to fire workers for their sexual orientation or gender identity.  It doesn't matter how good you are at your job, if your employer doesn't approve of who you are, he or she can fire you and you have no legal recourse.  The country has long had laws that protect workers from being fired based on their race, gender, religion, disability or other characteristics of their identity.  But sexual and gender identity aren’t usually among those protections.

Medicare is the only way many retirees and people with disabilities can afford to see a doctor or fill a prescription. Next week, Medicare celebrates 48 years of providing care and security for millions.

While many Republicans and conservatives have minimized the impact of the sequester and its effects on America's working families, nearly 40% of people say it has hurt them personally. Here are 25 ways the sequester is affecting people's lives, not just right now, but more and more over time.

With the flourish of a bipartisan brush, the Senate approved a bill last night to lower federal student loan interest rates, providing a measure of relief to the 7 million students preparing to finance their futures this fall. Undergraduates borrowing for college this year will pay a 3.86% interest rate, instead of the previous 6.8% rate, while recipients of graduate student and parent loans will pay 5.4% and 6.5%, respectively. However, these likely will be the lowest interest rates students and their families receive for the foreseeable future.

Today the AFL-CIO Executive Council released a statement in response to the tragic shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on its commitment to social and economic justice for communities of color. The council also pledged to take action around these issues at the AFL-CIO Convention in September.

Read the text of the statement after the jump. 

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee yesterday voted (13–9) to send the nominations of Nancy Schiffer and Kent Hirozawa for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. The vote will likely be next week.

With accordion-led protest tunes in the midafternoon air, a group of DREAMers, older aspiring citizens and allies gathered outside the White House today to call on President Obama to end the separation of families caused by deportation.

With the debate in Washington set to return to the budget and the economy after the August congressional recess, President Obama today said, “The stakes for our middle class could not be higher.” In the first of several speeches set for coming weeks on the economy, Obama told the audience at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., that because of a Republican-led "endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball."

A new poll released today finds that 80% percent of Americans—including 62% of Republicans and 80% of Independents—support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and indexing it to the cost of living. It was last raised to $7.25 an hour in 2009.

The release of the poll came as low-wage workers and community, faith, union and other allies are staging a National Day of Action calling for passage of Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013.

Click here to sign our petition asking Congress to raise the minimum wage.

Having a job, says this new video (after the jump) from the Laborers (LIUNA), is not the end goal itself, but something that traditionally puts workers on a path to prosperity and opened the door to the American Dream. But, that was likely more true for your parents and grandparents because:

Since the 1950s, the so-called right to work movement has been trying to weaken your power and the power of unions, which results in lower wages and living standards.

Watch the full video after the jump.