Salary

We Canadians are busily finishing off our tax returns, and contemplating how much of our salary gets swallowed up in taxes. Where does the word "salary" come from? Roman soldiers received an allowance to buy salt, which was a very important commodity in the ancient world as a preservative for meat and fish. The Latin name for this allowance was salarium, derived from sal (salt). Eventually, salarium came to apply to the soldiers' regular pay, ultimately giving us our word “salary”. If you get your tax return in by Monday night's deadline, you will be thinking that the government's chunk is much more than a pinch of salt!