Skyhigh68, if you really are an active commercial pilot, I must say I am disappointed at your attitude. You come across as immature and bereft of experience.
You may have a point about SSTR - I think the pilot workforce as a whole were rather slow on the uptake the consequences of this development, however what's happening now in companies like Ryanair is well beyond anything that was envisaged. Commercial pressures shouldn't result in ability to pay to be the deciding factor who sits in the RHS of an airliner - aptitude and attitude should.
You can't compare 'grad' jobs with that of a professional pilot. Very few other professions have to operate a delicate and complex asset in a dynamic environment. That asset is worth tens, sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars, and is often filled with frangible human cargo, adding up to a multi-billion dollar insurance liability.
You have a wholly unrealistic view of the stresses involved this profession. Every day worked is a day when one's career is one the line. There's a spy in the cab in the form of flight data monitoring. A misjudged takeoff or landing can have career limiting consequences. This is a particular hazard when operating with inexperienced colleagues. The need to keep an acceptable level of fitness throughout one's career is another source of stress, particularly when one hits 40
Work simply isn't left behind at the workplace. That work can be at any time of the day, 365 days of the year - the roster rules one's life - and a day's work can exceed 12 hours. Implicate in the responsibly of being a commercial pilot is keeping up with the operational and technical developments within one's fleet and the company and beyond. Every 6 months a pilot must summit to a highly demanding checking and training regime. All of this reading is undertaken in an individual's 'leisure' time.
BTW, you missed the point entirely the Captain's point in the recent Panorama edition. Flight Time Limitations are law and are highly prescriptive. If an operator forces it's pilots to report early, it's breaking the law, plain and simple.
A piece of advice that will serve you well throughout your career: get the experience first before you start pontificating, not the other way round. Follow this and you'll not come unstuck.
Regards the original poster's point, our pilots earn between £50k - £150k, backed up with decent insurance & retirement provisions. I would say this is reasonable and not at all excessive when the unique challenges of this profession are taken into account.