Guilds would do some things to affect working conditions. They would try to control journeyman wages, so they were not being starved, and would provide for sickness, old age, widowhood, and burial for their members. Apprentice contracts would commonly have language in them stipulating that the master would provide decent food and drink, clothes ( often, including some good clothes for wearing to church on Sunday) washing, appropriate lodging, and "necessaries fitting and convenient".

However, the concept of actual workplace safety is relatively recent. There were dangerous parts of many trades, and doing a trade safely would be part of the training- someone like a glassblower would be expected to know how to be careful working around the furnace and other glassblowers, and a miller in a grist mill would be expected to keep away from the exposed gears- and if he was injured, it was his own fault. Some practices were just unavoidably toxic- like the vaporized mercury generated by fire gilding, or the mercury salts used by hatters in sterilizing furs- and no one banned either hats or fire-gilt medals.

Once there was industrial production, however, that began to change. Factory owners began to notice that , when they crippled a worker, valuable time had to be spent in training up a new one. It was found to be more cost effective to put guards around the gears, instead of simply expecting the workers to know to keep away from them. That concern for profit eventually grew into actual concern for worker safety and well-being.