I worked as a flight instructor in the US and I saw plenty of pilots with far less hours and quite frankly, competence, than me get picked up by regionals. The european market unfortunately has become filled with costly self-sponsorship deals and it's now to the point where it's standard practice and to be expected that the applicant will either be rated already or fund his rating otherwise. In america, pilots still receive their corporate training free of charge.
While it is true that starting salaries may be less impressive in america, they tend to pick up fairly quickly and they cap out very high. I think delta captains earn roughly 230k a year but I could be wrong. To me, at least right now the US seems to be the place to go to with regionals screaming for FOs. I know for sure that I'd be there in a hearbeat if I where to win the greencard lottery next year (if I was still unemployed of course)