The reason they give (I applied, but wound up taking a different job before completing that month's trial) is that the $25/hour is a flat rate they give to anyo

The reason they give (I applied, but wound up taking a different job before completing that month's trial) is that the $25/hour is a flat rate they give to anyone applying for any position they have, not just the comparatively well-paid development positions. So a CSR, a web developer, a deployment engineer, whoever -- all $25/hour. They further elaborated that they wanted a flat rate like this because they wanted to avoid what would effectively be salary negotiations before they even knew if they wanted to hire someone. I can sympathize with that position, though I think it might be more reasonable to do something like paying trials the lowest hourly rate given to anyone in the company doing that job. That'd provide context, while still being a vaguely appropriate payment for the work done.