Time to upgrade at a regional depends on the regional... and it changes so fast. You might get hired at a regional when guys are upgrading in 2 years, and then upgrade might suddenly drop to 8 years or worse. In fact, your regional could be closed down like Comair. You might be at a regional where upgrade is 6 years and then they get new flying and delivery of new airplanes and upgrade drops to 1 year. It all depends and it is really hard to predict.
At a minimum, if you have no part 135 or part 121 experience (foreign carrier is considered part 129, NOT part 121), it will be a minimum of 1.5 years to upgrade. You need 1000 hours of part 121 SIC or part 135 in order to upgrade.
To give you an idea, here is what I pulled from another website:
TSA: Captain Qualified First Officers
PSA: 8 months for now (For those meeting 1000 hours in 8 months or possibly street captains), for those starting with 0 121 SIC or 135 PIC you are looking at least 2-3 years since junior eligible pilots will be coming in an taking away upgrade slots. It will likely take a majority of you a minimum of 1.5 years to even get 1000 hours. Very good chances once PSA starts to park their 50 seat aircraft those with 0 time will see 3-4 year upgrades or longer.
Mesa: 8 months, maybe street captains? (For those meeting 1000 hours in 8 months or possibly street captains), for those starting with 0 121 SIC or 135 PIC you are looking at least 2-3 years since junior eligible pilots will be coming in an taking away upgrade slots. It will likely take a majority of you a minimum of 1.5 years to even get 1000 hours.
Compass: Down to 7 months. (For those meeting 1000 hours it is 7 months and shrinking to possibly street captains), for those starting with 0 121 SIC or 135 PIC you are looking at least 2-3 years since junior eligible pilots will be coming in an taking away upgrade slots. It will likely take a majority of you a minimum of 1.5 years to even get 1000 hours.
Piedmont: 3 years and dropping
Gojet: 3 years and stagnant?
Skywest: 4 years and slowly dropping
Air Wisconsin: 5 years and dropping?
Republic: 7 years and possibly dropping?
ASA/Expressjet: 8 years and stagnant?
Envoy: 8 years and stagnant?
Endeavor: 8 years and possibly dropping?
Horizon: possibly dropping to 2-3 years?
Starting pay... depending on the regional. If you go to a company such as Great Lakes, no pay during training and first you, your taxable income will be around $20,000 (they just raised first year pay by the way). Air Wisconsin is on the higher side and guys are saying that gross income first year is around $35,000. There are pay scales available for all the companies on various websites, so you can look around, but keep in mind there is something called "soft pay." This is extra pay for things such as picking up trips in open time, junior manned pay, etc... You also have to look at the contract, because some companies, such as Republic, do not have cancellation pay. Even though two companies have the same hourly pay, your end of year pay can vary by as much as $10,000.
Obviously, first year pay is not great at all. Second year pay usually has a pretty decent jump, and Captain pay is a really good jump.
You can expect to make somewhere between $22-$28 an hour first year. Second year, it can be as high as $40 an hour. First year Captain pay can be around $60 an hour. Pay scales can be found on different websites.