Editor’s Note: Put us in line with those applauding Senator O’Scanlon’s action. Anyone whose income has relied on tips commensurate with the service they provide is shouting, Bravo, Senator!
Brent Johnson reports for NJ.com
Leave a skimpy tip at a restaurant, and the most you might expect to happen is your server cursing you out to other members of the waitstaff.
You probably wouldn’t expect a member of the state Senate to chide you in public. By name.
But that’s what happened this week when state Sen. Declan O’Scanlontook to Twitter on Tuesday night — and the move has drawn some backlash.
The Monmouth County Republican tweeted a photo of a $119.26 check at the Colts Neck Inn from the day before. The tip for a waitress named Ashley: a mere 74 cents. (That rounds the bill up to $120.)
On the receipt was the name of the debit cardholder who paid for the meal.
O’Scanlon, who lives in nearby Little Silver and often eats at the restaurant, said Ashley is “a great waitress and wonderful human being” — and the customer is “a jerk.”
“Live with your misplaced obnoxiousness,” the senator wrote.
Declan O’Scanlon@declanoscanlon
Wow…have to work to qualify for my calling you out specifically as a jerk. But Anthony Dierlof qualifies. Ashley is a great waitress and wonderful human being. Certainly not a malicious bone in her body. Makes Anthony…a jerk. Live with your misplaced obnoxiousness.
O’Scanlon told NJ Advance Media on Thursday he happened to visit the Inn the night after the notorious tip and it was “the talk of the restaurant.”
The senator — whom Ashley had waited on before — decided to take action.
“It was such a jerky thing,” O’Scanlon said. “If you don’t tip at all, that happens. But this guy went out of his way to make it sting, to do the math. It was an overt effort to hurt this person.”
The lawmaker added that he does not know the customer at all and has no personal vendetta against him.
“That would be a line I wouldn’t cross,” O’Scanlon said.
Still, some Twitter users were put off by O’Scanlon’s actions:
Declan O’Scanlon@declanoscanlon · Aug 13, 2019
Wow…have to work to qualify for my calling you out specifically as a jerk. But Anthony Dierlof qualifies. Ashley is a great waitress and wonderful human being. Certainly not a malicious bone in her body. Makes Anthony…a jerk. Live with your misplaced obnoxiousness.
@declanoscanlon I think you are completely out of line for sharing this guy’s information and Ashley should be fired for taking a picture of the patrons receipt and information… Shame on you Declan.
Declan O’Scanlon@declanoscanlon · Aug 13, 2019
Wow…have to work to qualify for my calling you out specifically as a jerk. But Anthony Dierlof qualifies. Ashley is a great waitress and wonderful human being. Certainly not a malicious bone in her body. Makes Anthony…a jerk. Live with your misplaced obnoxiousness.
Bad move posting this. Especially for an elected official.
Others backed him up:
Declan O’Scanlon@declanoscanlon · Aug 13, 2019
Wow…have to work to qualify for my calling you out specifically as a jerk. But Anthony Dierlof qualifies. Ashley is a great waitress and wonderful human being. Certainly not a malicious bone in her body. Makes Anthony…a jerk. Live with your misplaced obnoxiousness.
barbara lesinski@BarbaraLesinski
Interesting Declan, that with all the social media crap posted by elected officials today that you received some of these comments about your post. The service industry is one of the hardest to work and the lowest paid. Tips are something they rely on the survive.
O’Scanlon brushed off the criticism.
“It’s crap,” he said. “Give me a break. I think maybe we need more people to not hesitate to speak out and speak up on behalf of people who don’t have the reach we have.”
“Maybe if the jerks of the world knew there’d be people to call out their overt efforts to make world a darker place, maybe they’d hesitate,” the senator added.
Reached via phone by NJ Advance Media, a man identifying himself as the customer’s father declined to comment. The customer himself could not be reached.
Other critics have pointed out that O’Scanlon didn’t vote last year for a law gradually increasing New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Tipped workers are paid through a combination of tips and wages that must be equal to the minimum wage. This law increased the tipped minimum wage from $2.13 an hour to $5.13 an hour by 2022. If those wages and tips don’t meet the minimum wage, the employer is supposed to make up the difference.
Declan O’Scanlon@declanoscanlon · Aug 13, 2019
Wow…have to work to qualify for my calling you out specifically as a jerk. But Anthony Dierlof qualifies. Ashley is a great waitress and wonderful human being. Certainly not a malicious bone in her body. Makes Anthony…a jerk. Live with your misplaced obnoxiousness.
Cooper River Indivisible@Indivisible_NJ1
You’ll be immediately calling for a minimum wage hike for wait staff, right? Since you now see why it’s needed.
O’Scanlon said his vote against the minimum wage hike is “totally unrelated to this” and that he’s heard from numerous servers who don’t want to be included in the minimum wage because they make more from tips than hourly wages.
“People arguing we should pay minimum wage to servers and get rid of tipping are people that don’t work in the industry,” he said. “But I’m happy to have that discussion.”
