Live in Washington work on Oregon?

[diggitydot]

I see your point. However, the cost of living in most areas of Colorado and California are MUCH higher than WA. When you compare the wages and costs of living for each state, you'll likely find that each state has a similar percentage of their wages going to the costs of living. Higher wages follow higher costs of living.

If you're currently to the point where you're seriously considering either Vancouver or White Salmon, the time for generalities is over and you really need to deal in specifics. In those areas, your wages will be higher in the cities in Oregon, no doubt. Those two communities have a significantly lower cost of living than those across the river in Oregon that you'd be working in.

I absolutely understand the worry of supporting your family when you relocate. But I'd be hard pressed to think you couldn't comfortably support your family with the wages of an aerospace software engineer in either Vancouver or White Salmon. What's the pay range for your type of work?

[PNW-type-gal]

My husband works for HP in Vancouver, and there's very little salary difference between the Vancouver site and the Silicon Valley site - certainly not enough of a pay difference to reflect the difference in housing costs.

[MtnSurfer]

Thanks PNW-type-gal,

That is good to hear. I would hope that the major players Like HP, Oracle, Intel, Google, etc... wouldn't try and 'low ball' people who come to the PNW to live.

Diggitydot, I see what you mean. It seems like most smaller towns in the US pay less than the larger cities. I guess the thing that I noticed when doing an initial online search for jobs was the low pay 'some' areas in Oregon were offering. I think these were smaller companies in some of the smaller to mid-sized towns. So hopefully in a place like Portland, Vancouver, Corvallis, Salem and Eugene wages will be close to the national averages.

In answer to your question, an aerospace software engineer can earn between 60-100K+ depending on current skills and years of experience in both Ca. and Co. I fall somewhere in the middle of that range and plan on continuing to move in the upward direction rather than go in reverse.

So while income is not everything. It is an important consideration when evaluating an area against one's personal and professional goals.

BTW - the cost of living in Co. (I live in Colorado Springs) is 'much' less than Ca. but my salary is the same.
- Derek

[tljenkins27]

I live and work in Washington and am looking to take a second job in Oregon. I was informed by someone that Oregon will tax my Washington income as well, does anyone know if this is true?

[Nell Plotts]

Download the Oregon personal income tax return for 2008 and give it a spin.

[SeattlitefromNC]

Originally Posted by tljenkins27

I live and work in Washington and am looking to take a second job in Oregon. I was informed by someone that Oregon will tax my Washington income as well, does anyone know if this is true?

From here:

https://secure.dor.state.or.us/piti/...=topic&id=0047

Nonresidents.* Oregon taxes the income you earned while working in Oregon. Oregon does not tax any amount you earned while you were working outside Oregon.

If the amount you earned working in Oregon differs from the Oregon wages shown on your W-2 form, you must attach an explanation from your employer to your Oregon return.

If your Oregon wages are not stated separately on your W-2, compute your Oregon-source income using the formula below.

Important information for using this formula: When you count the number of days you actually worked in Oregon and the number of days you actually worked everywhere, do not include holidays, vacation days, or sick days. These aren’t days that you actually worked. Your employer paid you for these days based on the days you worked. However, include your sick pay, holiday pay, and vacation pay in total wages.

Use the formula below to determine total wages taxable by Oregon.

Days actually worked in Oregon/Total wages = Oregon wages

Total days actually worked everywhere

If you only worked in Oregon, do not use the formula above. All your earnings are taxable by Oregon, and you must report them on your Oregon return.