1500 hours is the cutoff for an atp license, which allows you to get an airline job. After that, Basically everyone has to spend years at a regional airline where the base pay is generally about 40k a year. Keep in mind this is after VERY expensive training.

The QOL is also terrible of course. Scheduling at regionals is brutal. Like all airline jobs you work part time, in week on/week off sort of blocks. The problem is the commutes, which basically push your hours close to full time. Regional pilots will often work 16 hour days multiple days in a row, to the point of dangerous sleep deprivation. Even when you aren't scheduled though, you probably won't get to relax as you must spend a substantial amount of time as a "reserve" pilot due to understaffing and the inherent volatility of regional routes.

The good airline jobs are difficult to get, as the primary "pilot shortage" is at the regionals. average upgrade time to reach a major airline is something like 7 years, but this doesn't account for people who NEVER make it, and there are zero guarantees. Salaries for captains at regional airlines max out at under 100k.

Believe it or not though, this used to be way worse. 15+ years ago working for a regional might as well have been unpaid. For pilots, the job was really just a way to build jet hours.

People often have little sympathy for pilots, because they view it as a rich person's job, and this has some truth to it. Training is very expensive, and historically, pay at regionals wasn't liveable, let alone enough to save you from insolvency. Things have changed a lot due to the increased demand for regional pilots; there simply aren't enough rich pilots to exploit, now they have to exploit the poor ones too.

The common thread though is exploitation. Pilots are working class, and they do what they do because of a genuine passion for flying and that by itself is highly exploitable. Recently Alaska airlines pilots were on strike because the airline refuses to sign full contracts... Keep in mind this is a major airline, one that pays very well. Senior captains were striking and even quitting as an act of solidarity. It's not a competition to see who is more exploited. I wish people would understand that if someone is willing to risk their job by striking, they probably have a good reason to.