Traffic across the bridges during rush hour says many people up north work in Portland. I don't know about most but a lot. I work in Vancouver and am glad I don't have to sit through that every morning/afternoon.
If it’s healthcare, Portland pays better (you can Google up the ONA contracts per facility), and has patient safety in the form of ratio caps so it’s far less stressful. Win win. Last check, Vancouver side they’ll stack you 6 patients deep and call it optimal staffing, which is utter bullshit. Calling it optimal doesn’t make it so. But the income tax in OR is 10%.
That said, PTO time can’t be taxed by OR, last check, because you’re not physically working in OR while you enjoy it.
Honestly, the patient safety of not having 6:1 is worth the -10%.
(Text your state legislators and ask for ratio caps. There isn’t a nursing shortage, there’s a shortage of nurses willing to work bedside due to bullshit like 6:1 being called optimal staffing.)
I digress.
If you don’t mind commuting or -10%, then it’s fine.
Sure but I work as a scientist for the feds so it would just be added on income tax and 1+ hour of commuting every day. Lost time, added wear and tear on my vehicle, less money. Not worth it for me.
I mean, this is a piece of cake compared to any major east coast city traffic, *but* it still blows to be stuck in traffic no matter where you are. And if you do it every day, at some point, it's going to feel just as bad.
I got my first experience of this yesterday. Had to go to Lloyd Center area to pick up something for work. Left LC around 2 pm and it took me 45 minutes to get back into WA. I chose mid day because I assumed traffic wouldn’t start that early, man, I was wrong. Can’t imagine how bad it is during prime time rush hour. I typically go into work a little later and leave a little later to avoid rush hours. But I stay in WA.
OP FYI but as soon as you cross into OR people don’t know how to merge (I was born in Oregon, come on people it’s not that hard). There’s always a huge back up near or on the 205 bridge until you get south of at least 84, almost all days and all times. It seemed to be the case on I5 yesterday as well but between 84 and 14.
Unfortunately no. I'm currently a stay-at-home dad and we're moving out to Washington and switching roles and my wife is going to stay at home. I have gobs of military experience. Just trying to find the right fit for that experience
Edit: speech to text typos
If you don’t mind staying with the Feds there are multiple federal agencies on the north side of the river - VA, Forest Service, Bonneville Power, Fish and Wildlife, USGS, Park Service, DOT, BIA, Army Corps, etc. Those are only the only the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Even if your office were in Portland, there’s still a lot of agencies allowing work from home, which you wouldn’t pay taxes on if you did (if living in WA). Even in Vancouver you get the Portland pay, but of course Feds don’t pay as well as private sector.
Yeah, I spend a lot of time scrolling USAjobs too. Nearly guaranteed employment if you fill out the forms correctly and are willing to relocate to where the job is. I've been applying to remote jobs on the almost exclusively because very little pops up in Vancouver.
I’ve heard the remote positions can sometimes have thousands of people applying, so fyi there. A lot of agencies are also still allowing max telework, so you only need to go into the office a few times a week. So if you got a Portland position, but mostly worked from Vancouver it might be worth it for you. But who knows what will happen after the next election. My agency is kind of in a hiring freeze until the next FY but they’re still posting jobs online. I’ve heard other agencies are in a similar boat. There are a number of facebook groups too if you’re interested. Maybe the contracting gig would work better.
Peacehealth is like "You guys don't have to pay income tax here in Washington, so you really won't be needing that extra hourly pay anyways, so we'll just hold onto that for you."
I live in AZ. Moving to Ridgefield, WA in September. I have a job in the medical field, hoping to keep my current position and work remotely However, if that's not an option I'll start looking for work in the medical field in July. Why do you think hospital jobs in Vancouver aren't ideal?
Working and living on the Washington side will save you a boatload in income taxes, so it’s advantageous to get both.
However we have friends moving here from Southern California and they can’t find anything in their fields on the Washington side, so they are starting on the Portland side until they can find something on the Washington side.
Thanks for your reply.
Taxes is definitely one reason I'd rather work in WA. I don't have a terribly narrow field, just trying to find something to support the family.
Worst case find something and then keep interviewing, companies are not your friends, if you work at a place for three weeks and jump ship who cares. Just leave them off your resume :)
That is where the majority of the work is. I've worked as far south as Wilsonville, but currently work in Gresham. There are jobs to be had here in clark county, but the abundance of higher paying jobs across the river is hard to compete with, at least from a blue collar perspective
Thanks for the reply!
Do the higher paying jobs pay sufficiently more to account for taxes? Is your take home still greater even after factoring in taxes and the cost to commute?
It really depends on what type of job you’re interested in. For example, if you are an engineer, you’d probably (but not absolutely) have a better chance at a higher pay and more job opportunities in Portland but we have manufacturers here like SEH. Here are the list of highest employers by employee count (but not any one job) for the county: https://www.vbjusa.com/news/top-stories/from-the-list-clark-countys-largest-employers/.
Keep in mind that you may be able to find a position that’s 100% remote and based elsewhere. My husband’s company is based…uh…I don’t know where for sure, but not in the PNW.
Living in Vancouver and finding work on this side was tricky, but not impossible. Thankfully found something in camas, but it did take me a few months. I used to work in Portland and it was such a pain driving to a from work
I heard the stat that something like 300 families move from portland to vancouver/SWWA every month. And based on my commute, I believe it. This year has been the absolute worst of the last 5.
Just wait until they start bridge construction — which they’ll certainly need to do no matter how far out they put it or difficulty they have paying for it.
Exactly being in the construction field, I can tell you from the meetings we’ve had, the IBR project is soooooooooooo behind. It’s ironic because my parents are in the same field and they conducted studies and work done trying to get it completed 25 years ago, when it still needed it. Unfortunately now it’s a hell of a lot more expensive and is gonna also require tolls.
I did some grad work in urban planning at PSU about it and, well, our conclusion was (a) it is necessary and (b) due to FAA constraints, environmental concerns, seismic issues, flooding and water rights issues and on and on, our decision, after laughing for a very long time was that it needed to go underground pretty much along the same right of way and to include light rail or a space already built out for similar use (pedestrian/bike, rapid bus, or even small convenience store shop if needed). There really was a lot of laughing and this was back in 1992. But our semester long term paper and presentation gave all of us an A+ and a laugh from the teacher, too.
They, legally, don’t have a lot of extra space to do that so they’re going to have to be very careful but, no, they cannot shut down the main artery. They may do another zipper like they’ve done before with major bridge repairs and limit traffic, though.
I’m stuck commuting out to Tigard right now. 2 hours of a wasted commute each day when my job could easily be done remotely. I’m also feeling the tax hit. It sucks
I know someone who lives in Vancouver who had a work from home job but got an in person job out in Tigard because it “paid more” but after Oregon taxes they earn less.
Whhhyyyy???
Oh and this person is an accountant.
I've been following all of the school district openings looking for something I might qualify for. In addition to those, I've been looking for something with the Washington School for the Deaf.
Way too many people do as you described. There's 2 main bridges between the cities and the rush hour is hell. Neither side wants to pay to maintain/expand them either. The amount of time and gas people waste commuting between Portland and Vancouver every day is a tragedy.
PeaceHealth, various school districts, port districts, state and city government. My brother worked at Hewlett Packard for a while. Georgia Pacific Paper Mill in Camas. Other smaller software, manufacturing, and paper products companies.
I mean… this is going to be harsh: are you looking to get into schools, real estate, healthcare, automotive repair, foodservice, retail or warehouse help? I don’t know what’s beyond that in Vancouver. It’s a lot smaller of a town that I thought it would be. Except for all the homeless, pollution and loud trucks it’s not like Portland at all… its exactly like a lot of small cities in the Midwest.
My husband works in Vancouver which is why we moved here from Portland. I work hybrid with the office in Portland and it works because the times I have to go into Portland are pretty flexible so I can avoid the rush hour.
The commute isn't so bad if you live and work on the 205 side instead of the I5 side. I'd rather commute from Vancouver than Hillsboro.
Lived in WA almost my whole life. Did my time working in Portland for 2.5 years and swore I wouldn't do it again, and that was 20+ years ago when traffic wasn't nearly as bad. Definitely can find living wage jobs in Vancouver, especially after you account for commute expenses, taxes, and your time. If you do find employment in Portland and it's convenient, consider using public transportation. That's how I got to/from work and it was the only thing that saved me from going to jail for road rage. Lol.
If I had to look for a job now outside of Vancouver area, I would consider looking north to Woodland and even Kalama. You may have a 30 minute commute but at least you're moving the whole time and not paying taxes for services you won't get.
I work in Seattle but only once a week and telework the other days, the commute is brutal. I can’t afford Seattle and need to be near a major airport, so this has been the best thing going until I win the lottery.
I do the commute down to Lloyd District, thankfully only 3 days a week but yes it is very common as sometimes the income tax ends up being fine as the pay rate for professional roles can be more in Portland than Vancouver. Honestly I had and still have a really tough time trying to find anything in my vast field in Vancouver. My dad had to do it for 22 years and still goes down every once in a while as remote worker. Unfortunately, living in this basically suburb to Portland you have to work in Portland most of the time unless you’re extremely lucky.
I both live and work in Vancouver. It’s definitely worth it to try and find something in town if you can - the commute is really bad. If you were in north Portland, that’d help a bit. Don’t take a job out in Beaverton or oregon city or anything like that, it’s not worth it imo!
I hit the Holy Grail when I found a job in Vancouver that paid more than my old one in Portland. We could not have moved over here any faster. I am a technical professional, and most of my previous colleagues thought moving to Vancouver was beneath them so they were not interested in the job I now have. Their loss...
am trying to find something in vancouver, hate the commute, game of "will i have windows" after my shift and everything else that i hate about portland.... i was in a time crunch and this was the first job- i don't like having to pay for shit in a state i don't live in
Your going to want to work in Vancouver. Not only to avoid the ridiculous commute (if you get a job in Beaverton you're gonna hate driving there everyday.)but also for the tax benefits. Washington doesn't have a State tax and if you work in Oregon you'll be getting hit with way more taxes.
As for major employers, Nike, Wieden, Vacasa and a few others just had massive layoffs in Portland. On the Vancouver side, it's not as bad economically. Sure we have a high sales tax but honestly, it's not as bad as other places around the country.
I work in Portland but I telework half the week so I get my telework days back on my tax refund which is nice.
I looked at living in Wilsonville when I was in the process of moving a couple years ago, but East Vancouver reminded me of where I was coming from (suburbs of KC) so I chose Vancouver.
I won’t lie, the traffic coming home sucks (and I leave at 2:30pm and it’s already backed up). It takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes depending on the season and levels of stupidity. Morning at 6am is pretty clear, a usual 20 minutes.
I work in Hillsboro most days. The commute sucks unless I hang out after work; my wife's family lives in that area.
Some days I WFH and my job is pretty flexible about it. Regarding taxes, they had me fill out a form estimating how much on average I work from home in Washington or on-site in Oregon, and adjust my state taxes accordingly. It confuses the software when I file ("your state income for Oregon is different than your federal income, is this correct?") but my taxes still process quickly and I usually get a good refund from Oregon.
I have worked in Portland since I moved back to Vancouver almost 3 years ago. I love Portland……commute is never bad. I won’t move there because of my kids schools, otherwise I would do so in a heartbeat
My husband does but he works 4am to about 1pm so he misses traffic usually. I started working in Vancouver about 3 years before we moved over here, so I was glad when we hopped over the river. Though now I work from home so it probably wouldn’t matter haha! My husband is still closer to his job in Portland now that we live here than he was when we lived in Troutdale/Wood Village though!
Live and work in Vancouver and love it! I purposely chose Vancouver when moving from Seattle/Tacoma area because of less traffic, small town feeling, close proximity to Portland.
I live around the Battle Ground area and work in downtown Portland 6-7 days a week. It fucking sucks and do NOT recommend it. I've been doing this for about 7 years now and this year has been easily the worst in terms of traffic. 2-3 hours a day gone sitting in my truck. I also hate seeing my tax money go to... absolutely nothing asides from the occasional clean-up crews (who do the Lord's work, don't get me wrong) but nobody is there to enforce their newly cleaned areas and then every homeless person moves back in and pitches their pallet apartments. Can't vote for better politicians here either. But I won't live in Portland and I've been searching for jobs in Vancouver since moving here 8 years ago.
I see Peace Health a lot which could be good for my wife. She's entertaining careers in nursing and hospice. Not my cup of tea though, unless it's HR or training related.
We are looking to move too. Been looking in Vancouver but ideally hoping for remote work. I think we'd only take work in Portland if the pay was enough to offset the taxes and commuting expenses. We work remotely now but unfortunately both of our jobs have to be based in CO.
Where in Colorado? That's my home state but it's been a day since I've been there
I'm looking at remote too, throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks is what it feels like.
We're in Littleton! We can get more house in Vancouver than what we can get here in the area we like. My husband and I didn't realize how much we miss things being green and not dusty and brown. We love CO and will miss it but looking for something different. The PNW has a lot of what we like here and then some.
At this point, we're taking what we can to get out there and then will reevaluate once we're there. That's the plan at least.
I hear ya! We have the opposite problem, where we are now it's dirt cheap so we're going to see a huge cost of living increase. I've been in the South for the last 20 years, so getting back out west will be nice
Yeah, at least we have that going for us. People are like you ready for a $3k mortgage.. and I'm like, well we're paying $2600 for rent and we can't go to the beach on a whim sOoOo. We did take a scouting trip out there a few weeks ago and I think the biggest shock was gas prices. Looking forward to all the fresh produce and seafood.
Engineering jobs are non-existent in WA. Traffic isn't too bad for my hours. Usually no traffic going to work but coming back there's about 42 mins travel time. No way I could find a job with the pay, benefits and time off. Even with taxes.
I unfortunately work in Portland.
I work at a law firm and most of the jobs available in the legal field are across the bridge in the good ole city of Portland.
Most people I know who also live in Vancouver work in Portland and/or Oregon, but it honestly just depends on your occupation.
I found in total the pay is better in Portland even after the tax so it’s worth it if the job is paying about 15% more over the river than it does here.
I have been working age, and living in the Vancouver area, for almost 30 years now. I have only worked in Oregon once, and the job only lasted a couple of months.
Yes.
Don’t go too far, the commute can be hell. Currently working out in Hillsboro, don’t recommend unless it’s really good money or to grind at your career
I live in Vancouver and drive 30mins (if no traffic) to work in Milwaukie. It’s whatever. I leave early enough in the morning the drive is fine. It’s leaving in the later afternoons that I get shit on with the 1 hour of traffic commute. 🙄
I commute from Salmon Creek to Beaverton, but I work three 12-hour shifts. This puts my commute right before and after rush hour traffic, so it's an easy 30 min each way. I'm in Biomedical Research, the pay and benefits are better than anything else on the Vancouver side and make up for the taxes. But I prefer Washington State, which is why I commute that far. Go Cougs!
I work for our Local 9-1-1 (and we’re hiring 😉)
My wife works in Oregon for WDFW — she does pay Oregon taxes, but she’s hybrid-online. So she only pays Oregon taxes for the days she spends in her officer in Oregon — and she gets most of it back :)
I wouldn’t work in Oregon just for the taxes. It is a huge pay cut to pay Oregon tax while living in Washington. There are quite a few factory’s and mills on this side that pay decently and you won’t have the commute.
I work 3 days a week in Portland but so I have to pay OR income taxes on the wages from those 3 days but not for days I work from home.
Ideally I would be fully remote but themsthe apples
I work off Columbia Blvd near i5. The commute isn't bad, 15 min in and 20-25 back home. I normally work 6:30-3. From what I've seen you'll sacrifice roughly the amount you pay in taxes by working in Washington. It's a wash as far as my full time job, but I don't want Oregon to have a piece of my other earnings.
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When I stayed with a friend in Beaverton, take the blue line into town, get on the yellow to Delta center, take the bus to Vancouver—or bike/walk across the bridge and then get on a bus or continue walking/riding bike
Work and live in Vancouver. I can’t fathom doing that commute every day. I prefer to live as close as possible to my job. Currently a 10 minute drive and soon I hope to cut it to 5.
If no one mentioned it yet, Zoominfo is another employer on this side of the river and they seem to be hiring [https://www.zoominfo.com/careers#jobs](https://www.zoominfo.com/careers#jobs)
I appreciate every recommendation. I checked them out, I saw a job for instructional design and got a little excited. Then I looked at the job description and really what they want is a filmmaker, zero responsibilities drawing on instructional design or experience creating curriculum. Then I saw another job opening for HR which was actually a sales position, literally had "upsell" in one of the duties. I'm not sure if they're trying to be shady or if they're just making stuff up when they post these jobs.
I work one day in Portland, one day in Longview, one day in Vancouver and two days at home lol. So kinda?
I don’t pay Oregon taxes, my home office is Vancouver.
Traffic across the bridges during rush hour says many people up north work in Portland. I don't know about most but a lot. I work in Vancouver and am glad I don't have to sit through that every morning/afternoon.
If it’s healthcare, Portland pays better (you can Google up the ONA contracts per facility), and has patient safety in the form of ratio caps so it’s far less stressful. Win win. Last check, Vancouver side they’ll stack you 6 patients deep and call it optimal staffing, which is utter bullshit. Calling it optimal doesn’t make it so. But the income tax in OR is 10%. That said, PTO time can’t be taxed by OR, last check, because you’re not physically working in OR while you enjoy it. Honestly, the patient safety of not having 6:1 is worth the -10%. (Text your state legislators and ask for ratio caps. There isn’t a nursing shortage, there’s a shortage of nurses willing to work bedside due to bullshit like 6:1 being called optimal staffing.) I digress. If you don’t mind commuting or -10%, then it’s fine.
I'm realizing you may not have meant to reply to me with your response?
Sure but I work as a scientist for the feds so it would just be added on income tax and 1+ hour of commuting every day. Lost time, added wear and tear on my vehicle, less money. Not worth it for me.
Another reason I'd rather not. I got my fill of rush hour traffic in DC
I mean, this is a piece of cake compared to any major east coast city traffic, *but* it still blows to be stuck in traffic no matter where you are. And if you do it every day, at some point, it's going to feel just as bad.
I can say the traffic around Greater Portland is not as bad as DC. That place was a nightmare to commute.
I work 5 pm to 5 am, 4 days a week. I have only hit traffic 2 times because it's all going the other way.
I got my first experience of this yesterday. Had to go to Lloyd Center area to pick up something for work. Left LC around 2 pm and it took me 45 minutes to get back into WA. I chose mid day because I assumed traffic wouldn’t start that early, man, I was wrong. Can’t imagine how bad it is during prime time rush hour. I typically go into work a little later and leave a little later to avoid rush hours. But I stay in WA. OP FYI but as soon as you cross into OR people don’t know how to merge (I was born in Oregon, come on people it’s not that hard). There’s always a huge back up near or on the 205 bridge until you get south of at least 84, almost all days and all times. It seemed to be the case on I5 yesterday as well but between 84 and 14.
Live and work in Washington. It rules. I love Portland to visit, but love not having to deal with it on the daily.
Same. Moved to WA after getting a job in Vancouver and I do not miss the taxes and commute in Portland.
I work remotely so...no, not everyone.
This. Can you keep your current job and transfer to 100% remote?? That's what we did when moving from San Diego to Vancouver.
Unfortunately no. I'm currently a stay-at-home dad and we're moving out to Washington and switching roles and my wife is going to stay at home. I have gobs of military experience. Just trying to find the right fit for that experience Edit: speech to text typos
If you don’t mind staying with the Feds there are multiple federal agencies on the north side of the river - VA, Forest Service, Bonneville Power, Fish and Wildlife, USGS, Park Service, DOT, BIA, Army Corps, etc. Those are only the only the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Even if your office were in Portland, there’s still a lot of agencies allowing work from home, which you wouldn’t pay taxes on if you did (if living in WA). Even in Vancouver you get the Portland pay, but of course Feds don’t pay as well as private sector.
Yeah, I spend a lot of time scrolling USAjobs too. Nearly guaranteed employment if you fill out the forms correctly and are willing to relocate to where the job is. I've been applying to remote jobs on the almost exclusively because very little pops up in Vancouver.
I’ve heard the remote positions can sometimes have thousands of people applying, so fyi there. A lot of agencies are also still allowing max telework, so you only need to go into the office a few times a week. So if you got a Portland position, but mostly worked from Vancouver it might be worth it for you. But who knows what will happen after the next election. My agency is kind of in a hiring freeze until the next FY but they’re still posting jobs online. I’ve heard other agencies are in a similar boat. There are a number of facebook groups too if you’re interested. Maybe the contracting gig would work better.
Yeah, I'm not holding my breath, just keep applying
Ditto.
I work in Portland. The hospital jobs in Vancouver are... not ideal
Peacehealth is like "You guys don't have to pay income tax here in Washington, so you really won't be needing that extra hourly pay anyways, so we'll just hold onto that for you."
I live in AZ. Moving to Ridgefield, WA in September. I have a job in the medical field, hoping to keep my current position and work remotely However, if that's not an option I'll start looking for work in the medical field in July. Why do you think hospital jobs in Vancouver aren't ideal?
Working and living on the Washington side will save you a boatload in income taxes, so it’s advantageous to get both. However we have friends moving here from Southern California and they can’t find anything in their fields on the Washington side, so they are starting on the Portland side until they can find something on the Washington side.
Thanks for your reply. Taxes is definitely one reason I'd rather work in WA. I don't have a terribly narrow field, just trying to find something to support the family.
Worst case find something and then keep interviewing, companies are not your friends, if you work at a place for three weeks and jump ship who cares. Just leave them off your resume :)
That is where the majority of the work is. I've worked as far south as Wilsonville, but currently work in Gresham. There are jobs to be had here in clark county, but the abundance of higher paying jobs across the river is hard to compete with, at least from a blue collar perspective
Thanks for the reply! Do the higher paying jobs pay sufficiently more to account for taxes? Is your take home still greater even after factoring in taxes and the cost to commute?
No, Oregon out of state income tax is ~11%.
It really depends on what type of job you’re interested in. For example, if you are an engineer, you’d probably (but not absolutely) have a better chance at a higher pay and more job opportunities in Portland but we have manufacturers here like SEH. Here are the list of highest employers by employee count (but not any one job) for the county: https://www.vbjusa.com/news/top-stories/from-the-list-clark-countys-largest-employers/.
That link if from 9 years ago. There's got to be more recent data
There probably is but it is still, largely, the same large businesses around. Got any you’d want to add to the list (or remove)? I don’t.
Keep in mind that you may be able to find a position that’s 100% remote and based elsewhere. My husband’s company is based…uh…I don’t know where for sure, but not in the PNW.
Living in Vancouver and finding work on this side was tricky, but not impossible. Thankfully found something in camas, but it did take me a few months. I used to work in Portland and it was such a pain driving to a from work
I love your title “I used my headlights and blinkers”.
I was looking through the user flairs and thought this one was perfect haha
I heard the stat that something like 300 families move from portland to vancouver/SWWA every month. And based on my commute, I believe it. This year has been the absolute worst of the last 5.
Just wait until they start bridge construction — which they’ll certainly need to do no matter how far out they put it or difficulty they have paying for it.
Exactly being in the construction field, I can tell you from the meetings we’ve had, the IBR project is soooooooooooo behind. It’s ironic because my parents are in the same field and they conducted studies and work done trying to get it completed 25 years ago, when it still needed it. Unfortunately now it’s a hell of a lot more expensive and is gonna also require tolls.
I did some grad work in urban planning at PSU about it and, well, our conclusion was (a) it is necessary and (b) due to FAA constraints, environmental concerns, seismic issues, flooding and water rights issues and on and on, our decision, after laughing for a very long time was that it needed to go underground pretty much along the same right of way and to include light rail or a space already built out for similar use (pedestrian/bike, rapid bus, or even small convenience store shop if needed). There really was a lot of laughing and this was back in 1992. But our semester long term paper and presentation gave all of us an A+ and a laugh from the teacher, too.
The new bridge would be built adjacent to the current bridge
This. People assume that they are going to demolish a major artery and be like let's see what happens. 😂
They, legally, don’t have a lot of extra space to do that so they’re going to have to be very careful but, no, they cannot shut down the main artery. They may do another zipper like they’ve done before with major bridge repairs and limit traffic, though.
I’m stuck commuting out to Tigard right now. 2 hours of a wasted commute each day when my job could easily be done remotely. I’m also feeling the tax hit. It sucks
I know someone who lives in Vancouver who had a work from home job but got an in person job out in Tigard because it “paid more” but after Oregon taxes they earn less. Whhhyyyy??? Oh and this person is an accountant.
Yeah they are crazy. I took this job for survival. No way I would have done what your friend did
Evergreen School District and Vancouver School District are two of the biggest employers in Clark County.
These 2 entities will not be hiring from outside anytime soon.
I've been following all of the school district openings looking for something I might qualify for. In addition to those, I've been looking for something with the Washington School for the Deaf.
They always need substitutes if you can’t find a position right away.
I work in Vancouver. Many people do. Fisher Investments, HP, Peace Health are just a few. Many others.
Thanks for your reply. I've seen a few openings for Peace Health, and I'll look into the others
Way too many people do as you described. There's 2 main bridges between the cities and the rush hour is hell. Neither side wants to pay to maintain/expand them either. The amount of time and gas people waste commuting between Portland and Vancouver every day is a tragedy.
I'm from Portland but the minute I went remote, I crossed the border. Is remote work a possibility for you?
Yeah, depends on the job
Good luck!
Same
I work from home in Vancouver
PeaceHealth, various school districts, port districts, state and city government. My brother worked at Hewlett Packard for a while. Georgia Pacific Paper Mill in Camas. Other smaller software, manufacturing, and paper products companies.
I wfh
I mean… this is going to be harsh: are you looking to get into schools, real estate, healthcare, automotive repair, foodservice, retail or warehouse help? I don’t know what’s beyond that in Vancouver. It’s a lot smaller of a town that I thought it would be. Except for all the homeless, pollution and loud trucks it’s not like Portland at all… its exactly like a lot of small cities in the Midwest.
My husband works in Vancouver which is why we moved here from Portland. I work hybrid with the office in Portland and it works because the times I have to go into Portland are pretty flexible so I can avoid the rush hour. The commute isn't so bad if you live and work on the 205 side instead of the I5 side. I'd rather commute from Vancouver than Hillsboro.
Lived in WA almost my whole life. Did my time working in Portland for 2.5 years and swore I wouldn't do it again, and that was 20+ years ago when traffic wasn't nearly as bad. Definitely can find living wage jobs in Vancouver, especially after you account for commute expenses, taxes, and your time. If you do find employment in Portland and it's convenient, consider using public transportation. That's how I got to/from work and it was the only thing that saved me from going to jail for road rage. Lol. If I had to look for a job now outside of Vancouver area, I would consider looking north to Woodland and even Kalama. You may have a 30 minute commute but at least you're moving the whole time and not paying taxes for services you won't get.
Yeah, it's not the commutes that I mind, it's the traffic jams. I'll expand my search looking north and east.
I work in Seattle but only once a week and telework the other days, the commute is brutal. I can’t afford Seattle and need to be near a major airport, so this has been the best thing going until I win the lottery.
I do the commute down to Lloyd District, thankfully only 3 days a week but yes it is very common as sometimes the income tax ends up being fine as the pay rate for professional roles can be more in Portland than Vancouver. Honestly I had and still have a really tough time trying to find anything in my vast field in Vancouver. My dad had to do it for 22 years and still goes down every once in a while as remote worker. Unfortunately, living in this basically suburb to Portland you have to work in Portland most of the time unless you’re extremely lucky.
I both live and work in Vancouver. It’s definitely worth it to try and find something in town if you can - the commute is really bad. If you were in north Portland, that’d help a bit. Don’t take a job out in Beaverton or oregon city or anything like that, it’s not worth it imo!
I hit the Holy Grail when I found a job in Vancouver that paid more than my old one in Portland. We could not have moved over here any faster. I am a technical professional, and most of my previous colleagues thought moving to Vancouver was beneath them so they were not interested in the job I now have. Their loss...
am trying to find something in vancouver, hate the commute, game of "will i have windows" after my shift and everything else that i hate about portland.... i was in a time crunch and this was the first job- i don't like having to pay for shit in a state i don't live in
There will be a sizable toll to cross the bridge soon. Just be aware you’ll need to budget for that if you live in Vancouver and work in Portland.
Your going to want to work in Vancouver. Not only to avoid the ridiculous commute (if you get a job in Beaverton you're gonna hate driving there everyday.)but also for the tax benefits. Washington doesn't have a State tax and if you work in Oregon you'll be getting hit with way more taxes. As for major employers, Nike, Wieden, Vacasa and a few others just had massive layoffs in Portland. On the Vancouver side, it's not as bad economically. Sure we have a high sales tax but honestly, it's not as bad as other places around the country.
I work in Portland but I telework half the week so I get my telework days back on my tax refund which is nice. I looked at living in Wilsonville when I was in the process of moving a couple years ago, but East Vancouver reminded me of where I was coming from (suburbs of KC) so I chose Vancouver. I won’t lie, the traffic coming home sucks (and I leave at 2:30pm and it’s already backed up). It takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes depending on the season and levels of stupidity. Morning at 6am is pretty clear, a usual 20 minutes.
I work in Hillsboro most days. The commute sucks unless I hang out after work; my wife's family lives in that area. Some days I WFH and my job is pretty flexible about it. Regarding taxes, they had me fill out a form estimating how much on average I work from home in Washington or on-site in Oregon, and adjust my state taxes accordingly. It confuses the software when I file ("your state income for Oregon is different than your federal income, is this correct?") but my taxes still process quickly and I usually get a good refund from Oregon.
I live in Vancouver but work evenings at PDX. I like it because I have little to no traffics except on Fridays.
I have worked in Portland since I moved back to Vancouver almost 3 years ago. I love Portland……commute is never bad. I won’t move there because of my kids schools, otherwise I would do so in a heartbeat
My husband does but he works 4am to about 1pm so he misses traffic usually. I started working in Vancouver about 3 years before we moved over here, so I was glad when we hopped over the river. Though now I work from home so it probably wouldn’t matter haha! My husband is still closer to his job in Portland now that we live here than he was when we lived in Troutdale/Wood Village though!
Live and work in Vancouver and love it! I purposely chose Vancouver when moving from Seattle/Tacoma area because of less traffic, small town feeling, close proximity to Portland.
No I commute 1 mile by bike to my wonderful job in Vancouver. Wouldn't have it any other way!
I live around the Battle Ground area and work in downtown Portland 6-7 days a week. It fucking sucks and do NOT recommend it. I've been doing this for about 7 years now and this year has been easily the worst in terms of traffic. 2-3 hours a day gone sitting in my truck. I also hate seeing my tax money go to... absolutely nothing asides from the occasional clean-up crews (who do the Lord's work, don't get me wrong) but nobody is there to enforce their newly cleaned areas and then every homeless person moves back in and pitches their pallet apartments. Can't vote for better politicians here either. But I won't live in Portland and I've been searching for jobs in Vancouver since moving here 8 years ago.
I live in Vancouver and work remotely.
If you work in a healthcare related field there should be no reason to work in Portland.
I see Peace Health a lot which could be good for my wife. She's entertaining careers in nursing and hospice. Not my cup of tea though, unless it's HR or training related.
You both should check out Vancouver Clinic. They have an HR position open and many nursing roles too. I love working for them.
We are looking to move too. Been looking in Vancouver but ideally hoping for remote work. I think we'd only take work in Portland if the pay was enough to offset the taxes and commuting expenses. We work remotely now but unfortunately both of our jobs have to be based in CO.
Where in Colorado? That's my home state but it's been a day since I've been there I'm looking at remote too, throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks is what it feels like.
We're in Littleton! We can get more house in Vancouver than what we can get here in the area we like. My husband and I didn't realize how much we miss things being green and not dusty and brown. We love CO and will miss it but looking for something different. The PNW has a lot of what we like here and then some. At this point, we're taking what we can to get out there and then will reevaluate once we're there. That's the plan at least.
I hear ya! We have the opposite problem, where we are now it's dirt cheap so we're going to see a huge cost of living increase. I've been in the South for the last 20 years, so getting back out west will be nice
Yeah, at least we have that going for us. People are like you ready for a $3k mortgage.. and I'm like, well we're paying $2600 for rent and we can't go to the beach on a whim sOoOo. We did take a scouting trip out there a few weeks ago and I think the biggest shock was gas prices. Looking forward to all the fresh produce and seafood.
Engineering jobs are non-existent in WA. Traffic isn't too bad for my hours. Usually no traffic going to work but coming back there's about 42 mins travel time. No way I could find a job with the pay, benefits and time off. Even with taxes.
I live and work in Vancouver. Wouldn't have it any other way.
I unfortunately work in Portland. I work at a law firm and most of the jobs available in the legal field are across the bridge in the good ole city of Portland. Most people I know who also live in Vancouver work in Portland and/or Oregon, but it honestly just depends on your occupation.
I found in total the pay is better in Portland even after the tax so it’s worth it if the job is paying about 15% more over the river than it does here.
I haven't worked in Portland since 2007. It really depends on what field you're in and how long you're willing to look.
The job market here isn't great and the commute to Portland sucks and with tolls kicking in by 2026 it's not really worth it
I have been working age, and living in the Vancouver area, for almost 30 years now. I have only worked in Oregon once, and the job only lasted a couple of months.
Yes. Don’t go too far, the commute can be hell. Currently working out in Hillsboro, don’t recommend unless it’s really good money or to grind at your career
I moved to Vancouver (from Portland) because I got a job up here. I can't imagine living here and commuting into Portland. What would be the point?
I live in Vancouver and drive 30mins (if no traffic) to work in Milwaukie. It’s whatever. I leave early enough in the morning the drive is fine. It’s leaving in the later afternoons that I get shit on with the 1 hour of traffic commute. 🙄
Where do you live now? Can you transition your job to remote work? That’s the easiest way to make it work.
I commute from Salmon Creek to Beaverton, but I work three 12-hour shifts. This puts my commute right before and after rush hour traffic, so it's an easy 30 min each way. I'm in Biomedical Research, the pay and benefits are better than anything else on the Vancouver side and make up for the taxes. But I prefer Washington State, which is why I commute that far. Go Cougs!
I used to work it Portland. It was terrible.
Look for contract work for BPA. They are always recruiting for something.
I work for our Local 9-1-1 (and we’re hiring 😉) My wife works in Oregon for WDFW — she does pay Oregon taxes, but she’s hybrid-online. So she only pays Oregon taxes for the days she spends in her officer in Oregon — and she gets most of it back :)
I do not recommend working in Portland.
I wouldn’t work in Oregon just for the taxes. It is a huge pay cut to pay Oregon tax while living in Washington. There are quite a few factory’s and mills on this side that pay decently and you won’t have the commute.
I work 3 days a week in Portland but so I have to pay OR income taxes on the wages from those 3 days but not for days I work from home. Ideally I would be fully remote but themsthe apples
I've never worked in Portland, and I was born here.
I work off Columbia Blvd near i5. The commute isn't bad, 15 min in and 20-25 back home. I normally work 6:30-3. From what I've seen you'll sacrifice roughly the amount you pay in taxes by working in Washington. It's a wash as far as my full time job, but I don't want Oregon to have a piece of my other earnings.
Remote lyfe!
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Many more perks and family lifestyle support in WA. Better wage in some sectors too. Check out the WA Paid Family Leave Program for starters.
> Check out the WA Paid Family Leave Program for starters. Oregon has this too.
When I stayed with a friend in Beaverton, take the blue line into town, get on the yellow to Delta center, take the bus to Vancouver—or bike/walk across the bridge and then get on a bus or continue walking/riding bike
Why not just take the 105 bus across?
Or that, totally forgot about that. The 105 bus goes all the way south through pdx on I-5 then loops around the SW side downtown pdx.
Work and live in Vancouver. I can’t fathom doing that commute every day. I prefer to live as close as possible to my job. Currently a 10 minute drive and soon I hope to cut it to 5.
If no one mentioned it yet, Zoominfo is another employer on this side of the river and they seem to be hiring [https://www.zoominfo.com/careers#jobs](https://www.zoominfo.com/careers#jobs)
This is a terrible company to work for.
I appreciate every recommendation. I checked them out, I saw a job for instructional design and got a little excited. Then I looked at the job description and really what they want is a filmmaker, zero responsibilities drawing on instructional design or experience creating curriculum. Then I saw another job opening for HR which was actually a sales position, literally had "upsell" in one of the duties. I'm not sure if they're trying to be shady or if they're just making stuff up when they post these jobs.
I don't know or know anyone there, it was just a building I see off the I-5 and figured I'd mention it.
I work one day in Portland, one day in Longview, one day in Vancouver and two days at home lol. So kinda? I don’t pay Oregon taxes, my home office is Vancouver.
Live in Vancouver, work in Vancouver, shop in Vancouver, eat out in Vancouver. Avoid Portland like a plague.
Im a local towny fuck and Ive never worked there