I think those numbers are slightly outdated, I have full copy of the current TC's, which to be honest are pretty amazing (not the forget the 11% profit share bonus) but still in the end it's as you say sticks and stones, as us from Europe can't work there.
But the point I am trying to make is the fact that airlines in Europe / UK, have cheapened the profession, also in Europe before it used to be you needed 1000 - 1500 hours to even get a chance to get a jet job, then along came Ryanair and many others, who saw there was an opportunity to take advantage of eager pilots willing to do anything to get a job, including paying for their own training and working for peanuts. For those who say Europe does not have the possibility for this development, I say that is nonsense. When I first got into aviation that was the standard way, work as instructor for few years, get some hours, join a TP operator and get multi crew experience and 1000 - 1500 hours, and then straight to the big airlines. The ones who destroyed this natural development route was the likes of Ryanair. And Europe has been lucky because during this "trial" there was never a major accident, such as the Colgan Air accident, which lead to major changes in the US.
Add the cost of their training and period of low pay, and I still struggle to see it will end up equal.4 -5 years in the regionals, and you could get into a company like SWA, I am just using them as an example as they are LoCo and I have friends working there, and when comparing work packages, it is amazing to see the difference. Then again SWA has a very strong union, which is big part of their success. My friend who is there, is in his early 40's already with over 10 years in the LHS.
Having a limit of hours to join, example 1500 hours, would ensure protecting the industry and the TC's of the pilot profession, and with mandatory union membership for new joiners. Many might not see the advantage of union membership, specially new young pilots who when join think it's not of much use, until we have a situation like now with this current pandemic. We have seen companies do what they want, because there is a lack of unity within the company among the pilots, so in the end we are own worst enemies.
The previous "carrot" was that you would join and within 5 - 6 years you will be in the LHS, however this pandemic has changed this "structure" - new FO's joining are going to be exploited to the full on zero hour contracts, until the airlines manage to find some kind of sustainable recovery over the next few years. Equally there will be thousands of experienced FO's , in the bottle neck for upgrades. At one point we can reach a level where airlines will not be doing upgrades for several years, but of course they will continue to need "cheap" FO's who are willing to pay for their training and working for below liveable salary.
Before the pandemic there was an outlook of genuine short term shortage, companies where willing to do more to get flight crew, however now it has all be reset to probably the worst time ever in the industry, there will be man pilots not returning to the flight deck for many various reasons, some will have discovered life outside the Cockpit is not that bad, others simply will not be able to find a job and go out of currency. Because in reality, there are no new jobs out there available at the moment, that could not be filled by pilots who lost their livelihood the last 15 months.