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?

In many countries, trade unions negotiate industry-wide wage agreements in the absence of national wage laws, but in the presence of anti-union-busting laws.