To whose 'salt' is the idiom, "worth one's salt" referring to?

Question

Worth one's salt- worth one's pay; something or someone that deserves respect and support.

Mark: That journalist is biased. I don't like the way she interrogates our mayor.

Dale: Every journalist worth his or her salt should ask probing and challenging questions.

Does the "salt" here referring to the journalist or the person the journalist is interrogating?

candied_orange · Accepted Answer

Dale: Every journalist worth his or her salt (worth paying to do his or her job) should ask probing and challenging questions.
Dale is referring to the journalist.
We used to pay people in salt.  That's where the word salary comes from.  If you're worth your salt you're worth your pay.

Salary
Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French salarie, from Latin salarium, originally denoting a Roman soldier's allowance to buy salt, from sal ‘salt.’
google: etymology of the word salary

To whose 'salt' is the idiom, "worth one's salt" referring to?

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