This week marks the start of National Payroll Week, initiated in 1998 in the UK by the CIPP (Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals), to celebrate and recognise the hardworking people of the payroll profession.

To mark the start of the week and do our part in recognising our own members of staff and those in the industry, we have gathered some of the craziest payroll rules found throughout history, as well as a brief history of the profession.

So, enjoy discovering the profession’s origins and some crazy rules, and show your appreciation for the payroll professionals.

History of Payroll

The simplest definition of payroll is a list of employees to be paid and the amount due to each. The word’s origins date back to the 1750s when someone combined the word Pay (verb) and Roll (noun) to refer to a list of periodic payments made to staff as salary.

The paymaster handled payrolls, and it was that person’s job to pay wages within the organisation, company or government. The profession can be backdated to the mid-16th century in Europe. Today we know them as payroll executives or managers, terms used to denote a person or team that is part of the company’s salary department.

How we get paid has definitely changed over time. Early payments included food, grain, clothes, and even beer (we talk about this one below) in Ancient Egypt and salt and land grants in Roman times.

Most historians suppose the first salary was paid in the Neolithic Revolution, sometime between 10,000 – 6,000 BC. Still, the profession’s exact origins are uncertain.

Early salaries looked nothing like what we are used to in today’s modern society, and based on these crazy rules, we believe payroll and wages have improved significantly.

1. Beer Wages

Ancient Egyptians believed in the redistribution of commodities as the base for their economy. The workers that were paid received beer, bread, grain, meat and cloth as wages as they were considered the necessities of life.

You might even agree that these items still are the basics of life today. However, we imagine their beer options were very limited compared to the variety available today, so at least getting paid in currency means we can choose our own drink!

2. Payrolls Recorded on Clay Tablets

Some of the earliest known forms of writing were called Cuneiforms, meaning wedge-shaped, and they were used to record rations.

A payroll worker recorded a worker’s daily beer rations on a clay table. Beer was represented by an upright jar, and the rations were shown by a human head eating from a bowl.

We know our payroll staff is grateful that they don’t have to work out year-end reports from cuneiforms and have access to helpful software.

3. Living the “American” Way Doubled Your Wages

Henry Ford was an entrepreneur ahead of his time and famously doubled his employee’s wages from $2.25 a day to $5, but no for everyone.

Ford used a group called the Socialization Organization to determine which employee was eligible for the pay raise. The group visited staff members’ homes to confirm they were following Ford’s standards of American living. Some rules included:

• Men didn’t qualify for the raise if their wives worked outside the home.
• Women didn’t qualify unless they were single or had the sole household income.
• Immigrants had to be “Americanized” through specific classes.
• No employee was allowed to drink alcohol or gamble.

Imagine your boss setting standards for how you have to live in order to get a higher wage in today’s society. We are pretty confident that it wouldn’t be well received amongst workers.

4. Women Paid 53% Less than Men

The “Glass Ceiling” is a well-reported and very upsetting fact. But during WWII, women began performing men’s jobs (because they were fighting in the war) and were paid a significantly lower wage.

The women frequently went on strike but saw very few results as employers managed to avoid the problem. On average, women were paid 53% less than their male counterparts for the same job.

While today’s society witnesses less inequality, unfortunately, they still exist. This is one crazy payroll fact we wish was no longer true.

5. Salt for Soldiers

Some people argue that the word Salary is derived from the word salt because Roman soldiers were paid in salt, in addition to coins.

The Latin, Salarium, could have meant “salt-money”, which was a soldier’s allowance for buying salt. It could have derived from Salarius, meaning “pertaining to salt”.

Salt isn’t the scarce commodity it once was, so it makes sense that we are no longer receiving salt shakers as payment for work.

Help with All Your Payroll Needs

TS Partners employs trained and qualified payroll staff and uses the latest software to help you and your company with payroll. Contact one of our offices in Wellington, Plymouth or Newton Abbot to have a conversation with one of our consultants and find out how we can help your business.