Earlier today, Democrats in Congress introduced legislation to raise the federal minimum wage, from $7.25 (the paltry amount it has been stuck at for almost 15 years) to $15. This is an admirable number, if still over a dollar below most estimates of a living wage rate in America. The legislation in Congress also rolls out this policy at an absurdly slow rate.

Nevertheless, Congress should pass, and Joe Biden should sign, this common sense legislation immediately. Of course, it won’t, because Republicans are strongly opposed to any policy that helps working people, even as they continue to push policies that would shovel money into the pockets of corporations and wealthy people.

As this debate begins, I just wanted to share this chart from Kevin Drum, showing where the US ranks amongst other nations in terms of our minimum wage, and where we would be if we raised it to $15.

Raising the minimum wage is an easy, common sense way to help out regular, working people. It would do as much, if not more, good than many other, much more complicated fiscal policy ideas. Nothing helps working people and families more than simply putting money in their pockets and letting them making choices about they spend it.

And as for the claim that raising the minimum wage would destroy businesses in America, it simply suffices to say that that is just not true, and it only takes about 5 seconds of Googling and reading to understand that. And, frankly, if a business can’t afford to pay their workers enough to actually live on, then that business maybe needs a dramatic rethinking.