worth one's salt
idiom

- to be good at one's job; worthy of what one gets paid

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There was a time when salt was one of the world's most valuable commodities. Salt made it possible to cure and preserve meat (before refrigeration), to spice up boring foods, and was generally considered to be one of life's necessities.

Salt is meanwhile one of the cheapest items in a supermarket and doctors recommend reducing its intake to avoid high blood pressure.

In Roman times, soldiers were paid in salt rations or they were given a salt allowance called a "salarium." This word gave us the English salary, meaning wages, so that a person who does a good job is "worth his/her salt."

The expression is often used in the context "anyone worth their salt…" as a way of saying "anyone who knows what they are doing…"

Here are some other other SALTY phrases:

- rub SALT in a wound = to deliberately make someone's unhappiness, shame, or misfortune worse

- SALT of the earth = the most worthy of people; a very good or worthy person

- take something with a pinch (or grain) of SALT = to listen to a story or an explanation with considerable doubt

- SALT something away = to save something, especially money, for use at a later time

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Practice OWAD in a conversation:

"Mary is really worth her SALT, you made the right decision to hire her."