Are your taxes based on where you live or where you work (assuming you commute to work in different states)?
Also, I understand aircraft and location are based on seniority, so if you don’t get your desired location you can change when there is an opening and you have enough seniority. Is it just luck of the draw when you first get hired or how much choice do you get at first?
Ryan,
Your income taxes will be based off of your residential address, it doesn’t matter where you work.
With regards to aircraft and base, it is first of all based on company needs. Obviously, if a certain aircraft needs more staffing, the company will hire new pilots or transition existing pilots into that aircraft. After that comes seniority, usually there is a vacancy report that comes out monthly and you can put a request in for either a new base or a new aircraft. If there is a vacancy and no one senior to you requests it, it is yours (with some restrictions).
Yarden
Hi Ryan,
As Yarden said, taxes are solely based on your residence, which is actually another reason many pilots commute. Hawaii actually has a pretty high tax rate so many of our pilots commute from states that don’t.
There are so many variables that come with what base you’ll be assigned and whether or not you can get to where you want to be. As a newhire (again as Yarden said) you’ll be placed based on need. BUT there maybe a number of openings right off the bat. In that case you’ll actually bid within your class based on seniority within the class. How class seniority is determined also can vary by airline. When I was at ExpressJet it was based on your birthday (I’m old so was most senior) but at Hawaiian it’s based on the last 4 of your social. When there’s a vacancy you can put in a request but it’s not just a base vacancy it’s a base vacancy for your particular seat. If you’re a EMB145 FO and want to go to say ATL, there needs to be a EMB145 FO slot available. That’s one of the reasons it’s important to do some research into what Regional you want to fly for and not just look at who’s paying the most. The Regional may very well have a base near where you live but if that base is only say a EMB145 base and you want to eventually fly the 175 you’ll either be stuck on the 145 OR you will end up commuting. Make sense?
Adam
Thanks Adam and Yarden!
Makes perfect sense to me. Glad to hear taxes are based on where you live not where you are based. Seniority and bidding makes sense. It would be nice to have my birthday over SSN or something else, but I understand it just depends on each airline and how they determine it.
Thanks
Ryan