Of more than 1,000 respondents to a survey by the Criminal Bar Association - nearly half the membership - 97% want the association to explore the possibility of direct action, and four in five say they would be prepared to take action themselves.
Any boycott would affect 95% of the cases going through the crown courts in England and Wales, including child sex abuse, rapes, burglaries, robberies, muggings, and the less complicated murders.
The barristers say legal aid rates for work on trials lasting between one and 10 days have been frozen since 1997, while property prices have soared, average earnings have risen by 36% and the retail price index has increased by 22.5%.
Those covering such cases tend to be "junior" barristers rather than QCs, but included are not only the newly fledged but many who have been practising for 20 or more years.
Barristers working on cases lasting up to 10 days say they come to the bar with the burden of five-figure student loans from five years' study, yet are paid less than plumbers. They are self-employed and are required to pay chambers expenses, of around 25% from the fees they earn, as well as fund their own pensions.
Publicity for the highest-paid QCs, who can gross more than £500,000 from legal aid a year, mainly for fraud cases, has obscured the plight of those at the other end, they say.
One junior who replied to the survey said: "There are few graduate jobs that are worse paid than that of junior counsel at the criminal bar. I actually earned £5,000 less last year than my school friend who is now a teacher, supposedly a badly paid job.
"It is hardly surprising that many very talented people are leaving the bar to become employed with much higher and more regular income."
Another said: "The remuneration that a civil solicitor can expect within three years of practice is circa £60,000. As a barrister of six years' call I am lucky to gross £50,000. After deductions I can expect no more than £25,000 income a year. That is scandalous. We are treated like second-class citizens because we are publicly funded."
A third said: "For a professional of anywhere from five to 20 years' standing, to be earning - net of tax, chambers rent, etc - little more than £30,000, is absurd."
Some of the work is even unpaid, they say. Barristers may spend all weekend preparing a case for trial, but get only £55 if it is called off. A hearing to decide a sentence attracts a fee of £60. And defendants are often represented at sentencing hearings by junior barristers unfamiliar with their cases and who have had to spend hours on unpaid preparation.
Recent legislation, such as the rules allowing hearsay and evidence of previous convictions to be put before the jury, has also landed barristers with extra unpaid work, they say.
"It is disgraceful to work for hours and hours and then not get paid," one junior barrister said. "In real terms it means that our hourly rate is ridiculous and must be below the minimum wage."
The barristers say they will consider direct action if fee negotiations with the government, which were promised to start last month but have yet to get under way, fail to produce a significant increase.
They have taken heart from a boycott by senior barristers concerning cases lasting 11 to 25 days, which gained a 20% raise last June.
David Spens QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said: "The criminal bar is saying enough is enough. We have been taken for granted by successive governments, who have exploited misinformation about the legal aid system to drive down fees to the point at which my members are often being asked to work for free.
"For a profession which prosecutes and defends cases in the public interest, the situation is now intolerable."
