The industrial workplace has set a lot of safety standards and security procedures to ensure that the workers are safe and the company is protected from liabilities.

For example, workers in construction sites need to be in complete safety gear when working on and off site. They should be provided with safety boots or steel toe boots, a hard hat helmet, gloves and safety glasses. Sometimes, wide width boots are given too.

In fact, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) states that employees who work in industrial environments, such as construction sites or manufacturing plants, must wear steel-toe shoes or boots to protect their feet from hazards. Some footwear even has built-in metatarsal protection. Shoes with rubber soles provide the extra grip needed to prevent an employee from slipping in rainy or wet conditions.

In special cases, knee-high boots offer employees extra protection. They are used when workers must wade into water or would venture into extreme heat like a fire. These boots will protect their feet from getting wet in water or getting burned in fire. Soldiers and firefighters wear these kinds of boots.

In an office environment, boots are not required and employees cannot prevent their women employees from wearing heels. It is now their responsibility to have signs when there is a wet or slippery floor or warning signs that there is an uneven flooring that is an accident hazard.