alt Hacker NewsThis is essentially how the job market is structured in Denmark, and it works very well. We provide strong safety nets, free healthcare, etc, but in return, employers are given wide latitude to fire employees. This allows them to remain unusually flexible in a European context - responding to market changes much faster than almost any other European nation. We don't even have a minimum wage. Despite this, people can and do leave when an employer treats them badly or pays them poorly. This forces employers to offer reasonable wages and working conditions, or they lose their employees. For example, in 2021, Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening measured that 38.4% of employees in their member companies changed jobs. This was during a period when inflation jumped but employers were too slow to increase wages. While this should not be extrapolated to the entire economy, it provides an anchor to understand just how dynamic our job market is.
Employees are (or should be) given more rights/protections than the employers because they have less individual bargaining power. The rights are there to counterbalance. For example it shouldn't be as easy to get fired as it is to quit.
The country's culture matters a lot. The same system that works perfectly in a healthy society will end up an abusive nightmare in an unhealthy one. Mobility for salary raises can also become mobility just to keep a job.