Yesterday's U.S. Census Bureau figures gave us a shocking dose of reality: Your family lost $7,000 from 2000 to 2012. 

Blogger Richard (R.J.) Eskow from Campaign for America's Future pointed out that on average, most median income families lost even more than that: $7,490. 

He writes, "That’s $624 per month. $144 per week. $20 per day."

Today, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) launched an online wage calculator that lets people see what their wages should be if based on increases in worker productivity and if most companies didn't fail to adequately compensate workers for those gains. For example, if you are a worker who makes $40,000 a year and you enter that salary into the calculator, it tells you that you should be making $62,529 if your wages had kept up with productivity increases.

Click here to get to the calculator. 

Of all developed nations in the world, the United States has the most unequal distribution of income...and it's getting worse. 

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich says in his new documentary, "Inequality for All," "If workers don't have power, if they don't have a voice...their wages and benefits start eroding."

Check out the trailer for this film and see more content like this on the Upworthy Workonomics site. 

The latest post in the Workonomics series at Upworthy asks the question, "How Did We Get to a Point Where a Child Is Saying Sorry to Her Mom for Costing Her Money?" The video is an excerpt from the HBO documentary "American Winter," which follows eight families struggling in the aftermath of the Great Recession. This clip shows how income inequality and cuts to social services have real consequences for families.

The Economic Policy Institute has released important research about the economy in the past few weeks. Here's a look at some of the key pieces it uncovered about the U.S. economy.

In case you missed it, The New York Times published two articles last weekend that captured the dramatic disparity between workers’ wages and executive pay at large corporations across the country. While median working family incomes fell last year, median CEO and executive compensation skyrocketed and lucrative executive retirement packages continued to expand. These lucrative plans, known as “Golden Parachutes,” have increased despite years of public outcry as companies have chipped away at workers’ pensions and retirement plans. At the same time, a coalition of CEOs and corporations are advocating cuts to earned Social Security and Medicare benefits as they rake in lavish retirement and bonus packages.

The Economic Policy Institute recently launched Inequality.is, designed to help people understand and take action to fight the problem with growing inequality in the United States and to learn about the devastating effects this problem has on working families. The site, which is beautifully animated, contains a wealth of easy-to-understand information that helps people get a handle on the issue and explain it to their friends, family and co-workers.

How do we close the inequality gap and restore a potent middle class? The AFL-CIO’s live online discussion yesterday with Robert Reich, former secretary of labor and the Chancellor’s professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, went far beyond the idea of raising taxes on the wealthiest 1%. Worker co-ops, co-determination, reducing student debt, shortening the workweek, campaign finance reform and raising the minimum wage were among the excellent suggestions offered in the seventh in a series of online discussions to help us shape the 2013 AFL-CIO Convention and how the labor movement can meet the needs of working people in the future.

Income inequality is the defining issue of our time, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) told a group of young progressive activists at the AFL-CIO headquarters yesterday. Ellison joined a panel of distinguished guests that included AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler, Rep. Kevin Killer (D-S.D.), Special Assistant to the President for Labor and Workforce Policy Portia Wu and Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) Gregory Cendana, at the Youth Economic Policy Forum (YEPF) hosted by the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., Wednesday.

First thing you need to do is watch the video above, by YouTube user politizane. We’ll wait.

OK, finished? Great. I’m sure you’re mind is a little blown.