It's not even really a decent number, because I doubt anybody out there is paying $25,000 a month salary. In most people's definition, a salary is something you get once a month as a full time employee.
That 25,000 is almost certainly only paid for months at the work site, like I said previously anybody getting a (low end of the market) $800 a day would earn that. But that works out at $150,000 a year, ball park for what you would get working for any major operator in the international O&G market, with full benefits and decent job security. As you say, it sucks even more if you have to pay travel and accommodation out of it.