That's the fun thing though: if the only way to extract a COLA is by switching jobs, then employers have made the workplace so unfulfilling both intellectually and financially that employees have no problem doing so, which raises the costs of hiring employees.
They get it. They do not want that. It is important to keep these costs low, because they have to be payed in this quarter. When employee leaves, they try to push his work on other employees, which mostly accept that. So they save money in that case. But, it business grows or enough employees leave, they simply invest in headhunters, which search for candidates. This happen 2 or 3 quarters later and also is booked on different internal account. In meantime, they save money. Easy calcualtion. Been there, saw that.
Few businesses can afford to. A low margin business with price sensitive customers is not going to be able to optimize for much more than low prices today. Even governments cannot do it even though they have a monopoly due to politics.
