Work isn't only about money in that sense. If there are no money issues, you will more likely focus on other aspects of the job.
Things like work culture (including the amount political dogfights going on), secondary conditions and the actual type of work (bored of that industry? dead end in seek of better positions?) etc.
These aspects would personally interest me a lot more than a 200$/month increase in salary at another company, which ~50% is going straight to the government and/or (e.g. in the Netherlands) you may also outgrow a tax-cut and effectively end up worse. Then again, in Netherlands we 'enjoy' the benefits of free college scholarship for first Bachelor/Master's degree and welfare state laws regarding employee protection laws.
Because of these welfare state laws I do not see a lot of people in the Netherlands doing "engineering work" without a Bachelor degree. My guess is because employers have to be careful who they take up for a job and seek someone with at least some 'proven' (on paper) records. Those laws go active after the probationary period (1 month typically) preventing the employer to fire someone easily unless the contract ends or something drastic happened (like theft, violence, etc).
1 month is not a very long period to fully evaluate one's performance. E.g. a project start to end may take 3 months to half a year to complete, but probably even longer if the job application was specifically for a big new upcoming project which isn't going to be finished in "years".
These laws also prescribe that after 2-3 years you need to get a indefinite term contract - often joked about as "you are now part of the furniture around here". Nevertheless there are still plenty of "job hoppers" to be seen. It depends on the person, and what they value from their job. There are still plenty of people sticking to the same employer for 25+ years.
Two ways to work around it I think; either prove you have experience besides a degree, or become self-employed.
Then again, YMMV in the States, because you have things sorted out a lot differently.