“Regarding the minimum wage, here is some data for Western Europe:
“There are nine countries with a minimum wage (Belgium, Netherlands, Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Luxembourg). 
Their unemployment rates range from 5.9% in Luxembourg to 27.6% in Greece. The median country is France with 11.1% unemployment.
“There are nine countries with no minimum wage (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland). Five of the nine have a lower unemployment rate than Luxembourg, the best of the other group. The median country is Iceland, with a 5.5% unemployment rate. The biggest country in Europe is Germany. No minimum wage and 5.2% unemployment.”
Update: Here’s a link to a map with each European country’s current minimum wage rate indicated.
(Thanks to John Kannarr for the link.)
Related:
My video-lecture on the moral, economic, and political arguments for and against minimum wage laws.
Wow! Do you suppose this free-market stuff actually works?
There should be no such thing as a minimum wage.
The minimum wage destroys the free economy.
I often hear “well Sweden has {insert social welfare system} and look how awesome they are.” I have yet to hear “Sweden has no minimum wage and look how awesome they are.” I look forward to the day.
And of course unemployment is a problematic measurement. China has 500,000,000 rice farmers and relatively low unemployment.