tl;dr — when labor markets are artificially depressed by employers with monopsony power (e.g. workers only have one employer to work for), a minimum wage can improve efficiency of the marketplace.

Enjoyed the dispassionate take on the age old minimum wage question. It is difficult to figure out which people are in monopsony labor markets because it depends on so many things including geography and even within a zip code could vary based on a variety of factors such as internet access, public transportation access, etc. Makes sense that in some cases, when there is only one employer, they are artificially driving the price of labor down because people have no choice.

Have policymakers considered other solutions to this monopsony problem? For example guaranteed government jobs that pay a certain $ amount adjusted for the geography to incentivize private sector to match or beat that price?