Salary gives taste to life

Have you ever thought about where your salary comes from – not the actual money, but why it is called by that name – even it you think it is distastefully small? Sometimes, and maybe most times, it remains too small even if you think you are worth more than your salt to your employer.

As is so often the case, historians do not offer us any single explanation of where the word “salary” comes from, but there is strong evidence that its origin goes as far back as somewhere between 550 BC and 450 BC.

By the time the book of Ezra in the Bible was written, the production of salt was under the control of the ruling elite. If you delivered service to the palace you were rewarded with salt. It became a common saying that you were salted if you received sustenance or some reward for service rendered. In the words of Ezra you were eating someone's salt.

According to others the word’s roots lie in Roman times, with a direct link to soldiers, who, among others, had the job of protecting the salt trade routes of the time.

One of the better and more concise explanations of this can be found on the NEXONBÉR website: “The Roman salarium can be derived from the relation between salt and soldier. It meant to be in employment; be on the payroll, but the origin is uncertain.

According to the least-accepted theory the word soldier comes from the Latin sal dare (give salt). As a matter of fact, Plinius, a Roman historian, also mentions sea water in his Natural History book: In Rome, a soldier's salary was originally salt, and 'salary' is derived from this word. (Plinius Naturalis Historia XXXI)

“According to other sources, the word soldier is derived from the Latin soldius meaning coin, which was given to soldiers for their service. Salarium meant the permission to buy salt, or the money spent on the defence of the salt-roads (Via Salarium) leading to Rome.

“Whatever its real origin, this salarium given to Roman soldiers has been associated with the meaning of 'work for a salary' in the western world.”

To this we can add that many regard the size of their salaries at the end of each month of hard work as not much more than salt in the wounds and that it leaves a rather bitter taste in the mouth.