Some regionals pay below minimum wage; $8.75/hr. On top of that, a pilot is only guaranteed 75 hours per month. To get more they have to wait stand-by at the airport. It is often common to see a pilot trying to get 100 hours in a month spend 300-400 hours to get it. Most beginner pilots see their home only 3-4 days in a month.
Sounds like tough pay and working conditions to me.
But have to say, I don’t have any solutions. Clearly better pay will help, but then who pays? Raise airfares and thus cut the customer base??
It’s easy to say about any job field, that certain people should be paid more. But it’s much harder to say where the money will come from to pay someone more for the job.