In the latest polls for May and June, Congress’ approval rating is a mere 14%. This reflects a clear dissatisfaction with Congress not doing something meaningful to help American households. Highjacked by the Tea Party, the Republican-led House of Representatives does not want to use government to help people at a time America’s people need help digging out from policies that let Wall Street bankrupt the country.

Now Congress has been thrown the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court, and it struggles with fixing a broken immigration system. But, as we celebrate the federal minimum wage law turning 75 this week, we should add to the list Congress’ duty to raise the minimum wage.

Two new studies succinctly lay out the need for and the broad economic benefits of raising the federal minimum wage.

The Kids Count Data Book finds that the number of children living in poverty jumped by 3 million from 2005 to 2011—years marked by stagnant wages—and now 23% of the nation’s children live in poverty.

Meanwhile, a new report from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United shows that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, as legislation in Congress would do, would boost more than half of the working poor in the United States out of poverty.

In a Progressive Leaders Forum Town Hall meeting that will air Wednesday on SiriusXM 27's "The Agenda" radio show, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) joined Nancy Altman of Social Security Works, Edward Coyle of the Alliance for Retired Americans and host Ari Rabin-Havt to discuss the future of Social Security, including Harkin's proposed legislation that would expand Social Security benefits. The Strengthening Social Security Act of 2013 (S. 567) would raise the monthly Social Security benefit by about $65 and would measure inflation not with the chained CPI (a benefit cut), but using a more accurate measure of inflation for seniors (the CPI-E).

In The Young Population and Workforce, the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees reports that the face of young workers is rapidly changing and concludes that unions and young people can be strong allies in the struggle for workplace rights, immigration reform, student loan reform and other key issues that face the United States. The report notes that young people, defined as 18-35, while being a growing part of the workforce, face significant challenges in finding good jobs or, to be blunt, finding jobs at all.

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.

A new report from the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) concludes that the United States faces a staggering retirement savings deficit. America's families are between $6.8 trillion and $14 trillion short of recommended retirement savings targets, it says, according to financial services firms. The Retirement Savings Crisis: Is It Worse Than We Think? finds the typical American family has only a few thousand dollars saved for retirement. Some 80% of working families have retirement savings totaling less than their annual income.

Guess who’s calling for a $15-an-hour minimum wage? A self-proclaimed capitalist.

Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer made our case for a minimum wage increase yesterday in Bloomberg.

“The fundamental law of capitalism,” he says, “is that if workers have no money, businesses have no customers.”

Don’t forget to join the live online discussion with Robert Reich today from noon to 1 p.m. EDT. Reich, former secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton and Chancellor’s professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, is posing this question to you:

The rich keep getting a bigger share of the economic pie while everyone else’s share keeps shrinking. What should be done to reverse this trend?

This Saturday will mark the 50th anniversary of the March to Freedom down Woodward Avenue in Detroit.

Yet here we are today, an America deeply divided and fractured. If you are poor in America, you are not an American, but a Texan or a Tar Heel. Your access to health care, to quality education, to unemployment benefits all rests on the politics of your state. We are not simply divided in Washington. We are exactly where we were in 1864. We are divided in a vision of the meaning of government and of democracy.