Yeah, I just wanted to +1 for the folks who are getting screwed on salary like it's their boss' job.
I am in sales. In my particular industry, the salary behavior is pretty normal, and with a twist. New guys work hard, and old guys don't even see or call their accounts, for 3-5x the pay. New guys walk in behind the retirees and get the wall of complaints from clients. I am the only one I know of working to buy my way out with a burly 'stache among the younger crowd. It's hard to stay sane, even with that.
The next job tier up may be a 33% pay hike and the same or MORE hours. The route to the semi-retired old-guys doesn't exist anymore - the industry is consolidating. The current spot pays so much more than other jobs I'm likely to get in under a year (with 4-6% raises), and with the second best benefits I've heard of, that by the time I landed a replacement career, I could be FI. So, I'm still trying to see if I can endure it long enough to decisively get off the bus. I wouldn't even attempt this job with a family - I don't have it in me to phone it in, and I don't have it in me to be an absent husband and father. Those who said "set boundaries" are right - even if you're expendable, this kind of boss wants a really well-documented path to fire you if they're going to, so they don't have to pay unemployment insurance, so you always have more time (and leeway for boundaries) than they'll ever tell you.
Managerial strategy is almost exclusively "Maximum Pressure." You have so much shit to do you can't do it, and they know you can't do it - they want you to 110% until you burn out because they think that it's easier to do that and replace you than allow you to get comfortable. They have their own threats every month and their own targets they can't possibly hit. Many coworkers have difficulty believing a compliment from the boss given how short-lived it is (you may get one in a month if you're getting high results, immediately before the next demand). They know you need a rocket pack to jump to the next ship and that most don't have time or energy to build one. Where you really lose is if you believe this is what every job is like - however, there are more jobs like this for the 30s crowd these days than most of the 50s crowd seems to believe.
The other option than jumping ship is learning to smooth your tie, ignore half the noise, generate results too good to get fired, and then fire yourself before you have a heart attack. I'm baffled that people are posting they have better jobs... no kidding.
I have no kids, but I feel awful for my coworkers who do.