A UBI will not empower most workers to exit their jobs – the most vulnerable will not have another job to goto.

However, when focused on the most vulnerable in the labour market, the exit argument faces a different objection. Basic income only offers a real exit option for those wanting to escape a bad job by moving to a better one when such better jobs are available. Recall that exit is supposed to compensate a worker while searching for a next job, subsidise taking on a job with a pay cut, or provide temporary insurance while finding more appropriate employment. This works provided a better job is to be found. Yet if we restrict the exit option argument to those most vulnerable in the labour market we are also talking about workers who tend to face structural restrictions everywhere they look for work. Even the argument that basic income may facilitate taking on a better job by allowing for part-time employment or otherwise moving to a low-pay/high-reward job is problematic for many of the precariat, because under current conditions such jobs themselves may be in short supply or the most vulnerable amongst the precarious workers may not have the required skills to compete for such jobs. To put it differently, given realistic assumptions of how the contemporary labour market works, a worker exercising her right to exit provided by a basic income may be more likely to end up in a similar job to the one she escaped from. This concern is especially relevant in the absence of access to services that may help expand her opportunity set, such as free education or other support structures to facilitate job transitions (Haagh, 2011). Alternatively, against her will she may end up fully exiting from the labour market, rather than finding a better job. Some basic income advocates would still argue that this nevertheless constitutes an improvement of freedom – to wit, the freedom to say no (Widerquist, 2013). But that seems far from obvious when considering the case where exit from the labour market is not desired or actively chosen but rather structurally imposed upon the worker by the economic environment. The potential of basic income to serve the objectives associated with strong exit for vulnerable workers are heavily constrained by the structural conditions of tight labour markets, and the fact that those who may need exit most are also those least able to exercise this right.11 Basic income may help some workers to exit employment relationships in which they are dominated, but we should refrain from generalising this point across all workers. Similarly, for some individuals the radical option of leaving the labour market altogether may indeed be an acceptable alternative to being dominated at work, but again we should be careful to overextend this point and take for granted that radical exit is a desirable option for all those who belong to the precariat.