Look at the maths.
Contract pilot works 900 hours per year, (if lucky). 450 hrs of that will now be at base. Very few pilots live anywhere a base but 450 x 20 = 9000euros pay cut, but most likely with no cost cut for the pilot.
Contract captain works 900hrs pa and is paid 102600euros = 68400GBP. No share options, no holiday pay, no sick pay, no uniform or loss of licence pay or other insurances. No guarantee of work at all.
A fulltime RYR captain in UK, if flying 900 hrs pa earns +90,000GBP. After the contract captain pays tax somewhere he earns net less than a fulltime RYR F/O, who has all the fringe benefits etc.
This is not to mention the costs of attending the sim for LPC's etc at your own cost, whereas the fulltimers are paid as duty days.
At the end of it the contract pilots are being mightly screwed. This is not an honest cost saving exercise, it is exploitation of desperate pilots. After what costs are necessary to get yourself into the position to offered a contract you need to be rich or desperate to consider it. Sad, but the market rules.
Having said that, there is a shortage of captains, especailly type rated, so perhaps things might change for all the operators.