Nowadays, more stores and restaurants are not accepting cash as payment. Instead, customers must pay with a credit card, or by smartphone app.
Many business owners say that being cashless has helped them streamline the way their business runs. Staff members don't have to worry about having enough money in the cash register to make change or about taking bills and coins to the bank.
However, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, more than 8 million households in the United States don't have bank accounts. Also, many people, including kids, don't meet the requirements for a credit card.
"A cashless economy is not an inclusive economy. There are consumers who can't get a credit card, because of low income. When stores refuse to accept cash, they exclude low-income or homeless people," says Tazra Mitchell, a policy director at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute.
Plus, people who do have credit cards might prefer to pay in cash. "Cash is used by almost eight in 10 people in the US every month. That's more than any other payment type," says Nick Bourke, a director at the Pew Charitable Trusts' consumer finance project.
Lawmakers in several places have taken steps to ban cashless stores. A handful of major cities — including New. York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — have already passed laws to address the problem. In San Francisco, California, a law banning cashless stores was passed last May. It says most stores in the city must allow customers to pay with cash. Derek Remski helped write the San Francisco law. Remski says, "It's about understanding that not everyone has equal access to things."
