Just seen someone post my thoughts
Basically, yes, you've set a precendent as a dep by playing so many freebs, that they now expect it. As a dep, you are not part of the band, so disregard you play more gigs than their regular bassist.
Unless you put your foot down, ( ah 1 ah 2 ah 3 and a 4 ) it will go on as they've got it sweet. While you keep accepting freebie gigs, they'll keep on not paying you. They're not daft are they ?
Slight off topic
To me, and i know this is the same for all musos, i'm wondering why gig money hasn't gone up with inflation. Everything has increased, yet gig money is either worse, or at best the same as 25 years back or more
I know in '91 our band was getting roughly £250 per gig for pub work, and clubs paid a bit more. I'm sure it was at that level before then, and its still that way now