Companies paying $7.25 an hour are cutting corners on human input. They are cheating the consumer by providing inferior services and products, and leaving their businesses weaker, if not anemic and dangerously exposed to competition. Corporations that provide the best services and products are the ones that succeed. The ones that race to the bottom will ultimately lose the race because there will always be someone willing to do it cheaper, or more sloppily, or with fewer quality controls.