Cratchit wasn’t a laborer though. He was a some sort of clerk which presumes that he is also literate and educated.
My impression of the time is that it simply wasn’t that easy to switch jobs back in the day. They didn’t have Monster.com or even telephones. I don’t know if they even had resume’s back then. Did you just write them by hand?
Presumably the local business community would be relatively close-knit. Other employers would probably know what a jerk-ass Scrooge was, but I don’t think there was a lot of employee turnover in general so they might not have had a spot for him.
Beside, how many people these days work for jerk-ass employers? A lot.
It was not unusual for labourers, and especially skilled manual workers such as tradesmen to earn considerably more than junior office workers.
For the office clerk there was also a social convention to maintain, a position in life, with certain standards - whcih added to the cost of living.
Skilled labour tended to have more ability to move to where work was available. Gas workers for example were relatively well paid, as were the railways, foundrymen etc.
Hard work but all better paid than the humble clerk, however if the clerk was reasonably well connected socially, they could expect to move on an up so in some ways it was like an intern job.
For domestic service you would required to provide a character reference from your last employer (obviously desirable to show you weren’t a thief who had been discharged).
I can remember seeing a bunch of references my late father (architectural technician, then) kept, some from employers many years before.
I can’t recall what happened or if it was said in the original book but Scrooge was jsut a clerk with Fezziwig and he was able to leave and do quite well, at least financially, so that proved that it could be done. Though I’m not sure if the book explains how Scrooge does this.
And I realize just because something could be done, doesn’t mean it would be easy for others to do so.
And as others point out, it could be that Cratchit’s real issue wasn’t the pay or work but the fact he had too many children for his income level
I think the whole phenomenon of servants leaving in a huff came later, as rising levels of general education combined with successful union campaigns for the improvement of working conditions and wages created better opportunities for former servants. No doubt increasing industrialization and plentiful manufacturing jobs also contributed, but this would have been after 1900.
Of course, after the visitation of the ghosts, working for Scrooge was presumably a sweet deal, and Cratchit probably ended up being a partner in the business. It’s ironic in a way; the whole point of the story is that Scrooge redeems himself, but his name will forever be associated with miserliness. Oh yes, and a cartoon duck with a monocle and no pants.