The robber barons were quite philanthropic, and they endowed libraries and concert halls all over the United States. With a few businesses controlling the bulk of an industry, the businesses could focus on how to get the product to market most efficiently. Robber barons such as Carnegie and Rockefeller also employed millions of unskilled laborers at a time when unskilled labor made up a large portion of the US population.

Robber barons such as Carnegie and Rockefeller also placed workers in hazardous conditions and paid them very little. The Homestead Strike in 1892 was a public relations blow for Andrew Carnegie, as his workers engaged in battle with Pinkerton agents. The robber barons treated workers as disposable. Workers who tried to unionize were often fired on the spot as troublemakers.

Carnegie and Rockefeller also squeezed out smaller competitors. This lack of competition allowed them to charge whatever they wished. It also stifled innovation. Robber barons also polluted the environment, though this was not the issue in Gilded Age America that it would be nearly one hundred years later. Carnegie's coal mines in Appalachia destroyed mountains and waterways for years to come. Rockefeller's Standard Oil stopped at nothing to extract as much oil from the ground as possible, even if it meant little protection for groundwater.