Mobile payments. Credit cards. Digital currencies. Going cashless seems to be a worldwide trend. In Belgium, it is illegal to buy real estate with cash. Some banks in Australia have eliminated cash from their branches. Sweden has seen its use of cash drop to less than 2% of all transactions, and the number could be heading even lower in the next few years.

However, one city in the US is resisting that trend: Washington DC. In the nation’s capital cash is still king, and a new bill introduced this week wants to keep it that way. The Cashless Retailers Prohibition Act of 2018 would make it illegal for restaurants and retailers not to accept cash or charge a different price to customers depending on the type of payment they use.

City councilmember David Grosso, and five other councilmembers who co-introduced the bill, are responding to the recent tide of retailers in their city and around the country – like the salad chain Sweetgreen – who are no longer accepting cash. These retailers, which mostly serve upscale customers, say that going cashless speeds up transactions, improves customer service and makes for more accurate accounting. They also argue that having less cash lying around also minimizes the risk of crime and contributes to a safer environment for both their customers and employees.

By denying patrons the ability to use cash as a form of payment, businesses are effectively telling lower-income and young patrons that they are not welcome David Grosso

But to some, not accepting cash is discriminatory. A report last year by the Washington City Paper found that 27% of people in the US would have trouble using only a credit card to purchase products, and that the percentage in Washington DC is even higher. “I’m concerned with more and more restaurants, businesses and shops going cashless because you’re systematically excluding a group of people who are already disadvantaged and disenfranchised,” Linnea Lassiter, an analyst at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, told the paper. “And now they can’t have access to this restaurant?”

Which is exactly why Grosso and his fellow councilmembers introduced the bill. “Banning the use of cash is a discriminatory practice that disproportionately impacts the 10% of DC residents who are unbanked, and an additional 25% of residents who are underbanked and may not have access to a credit card,” he said in a statement on his website. “In addition, this practice is discriminatory against youth, who are often unable to obtain a credit card, impacting many of our middle school and high school students. By denying patrons the ability to use cash as a form of payment, businesses are effectively telling lower-income and young patrons that they are not welcome.”

So should a government tell a local business how to get paid?

Perhaps the best approach to the problem is the one by Cava, a restaurant chain in the DC area. The restaurant offers its customers lots of cashless choices – like preordering online and accepting mobile payments. But the company still also takes cash from any customer who wants to pay. “Whether it’s for underbanked reasons, for privacy reasons or for budgetary tracking reasons, we want to accommodate them,” Cava’s chief executive told the Washington Post. In other words: when someone wants to buy something and is ready to pay, don’t make it difficult.

The Cashless Retailers Prohibition Act of 2018 awaits a council vote.

• This article was amended on 30 July 2018 because an earlier version misnamed David Grosso as David Grasso.

