In February 2013, President Barack Obama proposed raising the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $9 per hour. Former Senator Tom Harkin and former Representative George Miller deemed that insufficient and counter-proposed a raise to $10.10 per hour. By November that year, the president agreed with them.

Now, congressional Democrats are trying to push the minimum wage even higher: On Thursday, Senator Patty Murray and Representative Bobby Scott introduced the “Raise the Wage” Act, which would raise the minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2020.1 Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez joined Murray and Scott at a press conference Thursday afternoon. (Perez announced that Obama "enthusiastically supports" the bill.) It’s an indication that the plan has wide support in the Democratic Party.

But is it a good idea? Probably, even though it carries some economic risks. Here’s why.

Raising the minimum wage to $12 per hour—a 39.6 percent increase—may seem large, but it’s not unprecedented. Congress last raised the minimum wage in 2007, hiking it from $5.15 to $7.25—a 41 percent increase that took effect over four years.

If Murray-Scott passes, the $12 per hour minimum wage wouldn’t kick in until 2020, five years from now. In fact, according to a new study from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, the annual percentage increase in the minimum wage would peak at 12.5 percent in the second year. (When the minimum wage rose from 2007 to 2008, it increased by 13.6 percent.) So while Murray-Scott’s $4.75 increase is larger than any previous minimum wage hike in nominal terms, it’s nothing unprecedented in relative terms.