Between 6-10 September, we celebrated the CIPP’s National Payroll Week 2021 and this year the GH Payscheme team transformed our boardroom at the Biggleswade office with a little bit of colour, and a lot of cake!!!
After a busy 18 months helping employers to keep their staff paid on time and correctly, and to understand the furlough scheme and its many nuances, NPW 2021 came at the perfect time to celebrate the efforts of all at GH Payscheme and of payroll professionals across the UK.
As we bid farewell to NPW until next year, we thought we’d impart a few fun payroll-related facts:
- The word payroll came into use around the 1750’s as a combination of the words Pay (a verb) and Roll (a noun) referring to a list of periodic payments made to employees as salary.
- The word salary can be traced to ancient Rome and the history of salt. Roman soldiers were historically paid in coin, but it is also said that they were paid in salt. Some even say the word salary is derived from the word salt, due to the salt allowances of soldiers. The Latin salarium may have originally been “salt-money, soldier’s allowance for the purchase of salt,” using salarius “pertaining to salt.”
- In 1535, King Henry VIII of England, who wore a beard himself, introduced a tax on beards. The tax was a graduated tax, varying with the wearer’s social position. His daughter, Elizabeth I of England, reintroduced the beard tax, taxing every beard of more than two-weeks growth.
To read more about how our very own GH Payscheme have been supporting businesses across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and throughout the UK, click here.
