Pay and general T&Cs will not be down forever. Once things pick up again, companies will inevitably need more pilots. Especially experienced ones as it's simply not realistic to run flight operations entirely on 200-hour cadets and freshly upgraded Captains. You need instructors and examiners. You need senior FOs for inexperienced Captains to fly with. You also need experienced and capable Captains to fly with the FOs who are fresh out of line training. What's the way to attract experienced individuals from other establishments or to prevent them from quitting flying for better careers? Offer them more in return. Simple supply and demand.
For some time, it will not be pretty. Especially for the beginners. Think self-funded type ratings, zero-hour contracts, a new advent of P2F and whatnot else. But it will level out in a couple of years.