Back in 1965-66 in the US, some major airlines were so desperate that they hired some pilots with only 300 or so hours. One pilot had to wait until he was 21 years old, and checked out as 727 captain at TWA around age 25. This was decades before a few situations (i.e. United) by which some US airlines were under court-orders to fill certain quotas for females... etc, whether the pilots had 4,000 hours multi-engine, or just 300 in a C-172....
