Major developments in the meatpacking industry from the early 1900s to today include laws put in place by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve working conditions, protect animal welfare, and improve the quality of meat sold to consumers. Working conditions have been a major issue in the packaging industry of meat since the early 1900s and have seen some improvements since then. In the early 1900s, workers faced harsh, poor working conditions, low wages, long hours, and risk of injury and death dark and unventilated, unbearably hot in summer and freezing in winter. Say no to plagiarism Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? takes a tour of a slaughterhouse According to Schlosser, to protect employees from getting cut by sharp knives, they wear pounds of “chain mail.” Chain mail is a type of steel armor, flexible enough to allow workers to move while protecting them from injury. However, chain mail is not always an effective method of preventing worker injuries. Additionally, employees usually wear knee-high rubber boots because there is usually a large amount of blood on the floor. Employees work in close proximity to each other as they work quickly on the assembly line of a slaughterhouse. Although working conditions are better today than in the early 1900s, employees are still expected to work quickly, which can lead to accidents and injuries. While technology has brought benefits to the meatpacking industry, working in a slaughterhouse is still the most dangerous job in the United States. In the early 1900s, unskilled workers consisted of immigrants and typically earned a few cents an hour (Meat Packing Industry, 2008). Skilled workers didn't fare much better, earning about fifty cents an hour and working ten hours a day, six days a week. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted to establish the minimum wage and address the issue of overtime and child labor. Women in the meat processing industry were often sexually exploited, raped by their boss, or forced into prostitution to support themselves due to low wages. According to The Jungle, Ona was repeatedly raped by her boss and forced into prostitution after being blackmailed by her boss. Men were usually paid more than women, even though they usually performed similar tasks. Today, the meatpacking industry is run by large numbers of illegal immigrants, who receive extremely low wages. Due to the low wages paid to employees, slums are still a problem today. The fast food industry primarily employs teenagers, immigrants and the elderly. They are often paid a low minimum wage and for long hours, as they don't require many skills to work in a fast food restaurant. However, the minimum wage has been rising for decades. From 2015 to today, many states have fought for a fifteen dollar minimum wage. However, not all states have converted to a higher minimum wage due to the negative effects. In the early 1900s, the risk of injury and even death was common and often avoidable. The assembly line system made the process move quickly and conveniently; however, the lines moved so fast that a man could have accidentally cut himself afinger cutting carcasses so fast. In The Jungle, Sinclair explained that a steer was free from its chains and as Jurgis attempted to escape he twisted his ankle on the instrument that collects the cattle's blood. Likewise today, slaughterhouses use an assembly line system. However, it is not as dangerous as it was in the early 1900s. With technology constantly advancing, skilled workers are not needed for an assembly line process. While there has been much progress regarding worker conditions since the early 1900s, the meatpacking industry is still as dangerous today as it was then. Animal welfare in the meatpacking industry has gradually changed for the better since the USDA began implementing laws to prevent inhumane slaughter. The animals were slaughtered without being stunned and were often still alive when they were slaughtered. According to Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle, animals had their throats slaughtered before they were even dead, resulting in a long and painful death, until they were thrown into boiling water. The Humane Slaughter Act of 1978 ensured a quick and painless death through rapid and effective means of stunning. According to Schlosser, slaughterhouses follow the correct procedure by stunning the beef, killing it or making it insensitive to pain. However, not all steers are killed immediately after being stunned and chained to the ceiling. For example, a steer fell from the ceiling and landed on the end of a conveyor belt while still alive and struggling. To keep the cattle calm and unaware of their fate, the route to the slaughterhouse prevents incoming cattle from seeing other slaughtered cattle. This prevents the cattle from feeling less anxious and stressed than they should. Many technological advances are used in the meatpacking industry to slaughter livestock as humanely as possible. Captive bolt guns are used to stun and kill livestock effectively, usually killing them within ninety-six seconds. Compared to the early 1900s, cattle feel as little pain as possible during the slaughter process. In the early 1900s the quality of meat sold to consumers was atrocious. According to The Jungle, spoiled meat was usually canned, smoked or ground to prevent the public from seeing the defective spot. Furthermore, the sausage was stored near rodent feces, and if the meat fell on the floor, it was only dusted off before putting it back on the assembly line. A government inspector was present, but many carcasses were not inspected. Shortly after The Jungle was published, the severity of the meatpacking industry was brought to public attention. That same year, Congress passed the Federal Food and Drug Act of 1906 to prevent the production and sale of unwanted products. Congress also passed the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906, which guaranteed that products were slaughtered and handled in a sanitary process in the presence of government inspectors. Today, food poisoning from fast food restaurants is not uncommon. Occasionally, manure is accidentally mixed with ground meat during slaughter, contaminating the meat with E. coli. While cases of illness are reported and investigated, the U.S. government cannot require meat to be recalled from its consumers. According to Schlosser, slaughterhouse employees can make many mistakes. For example, basic sanitation processes are sometimes forgotten; such as knives that are not disinfected after being used several times and the collection of meat that has fallen to the ground without decontaminating it in any way..