I've been looking into labour laws lately after hearing that job insecurity, lack of organisation justice and other work stressors are as bad as second hand smoking, quantitatively. I'm biased towards the right and assumed, by extrapolation of idealistic economic models, that minimum wages are downright bad. Not to mention coersive and taking away delicious profits from those capable, deserving and able to use it in the public interest.

But a little research suggests they may not be so bad. suggests some employers are not competitive enough to cut employment in response to minimum wage). Expert opinion suggests that it would and does occur in response to minimum wages on a larger naturalistic scale however.

Whatever the case may be, the private sector often does things better and less coersively than governemnt. I wonder if kinds of government regulation could be replaced by enterprising individuals starting say a 'minimum wage of $20 across this organisation' type thing and compete on that basis for high quality employees or consumers?

Thoughts?