Mandatory fun-killing note: the evidence suggests that Roman soldiers were never actually paid in salt. 😔

You could get rich as a literate legionary, though. A legionary's standard pay was about as much as a common worker. But the enlisted-to-NCO pipeline was very real, and NCOs got 1.5x pay, 2x pay, and then, at the rank of centurion, 16x pay! That pay scale also applies to the share of loot you receive after a battle, and, in the Imperial period, also to your retirement bonus!

Of course, centurions were expected to lead from the front, and had high casualty rates. In the Battle of Gergovia, centurions died at four times the rate of enlisted men.

... what's your tolerance for danger...?