It's always worth it to put your feelers out. Even for jobs I love I'll occasionally respond to recruiters just to keep up with the market and see what's out th

It's always worth it to put your feelers out. Even for jobs I love I'll occasionally respond to recruiters just to keep up with the market and see what's out there. Often this will confirm my happiness with my current role. But if you're on the fence at all, there's a really good chance you can find another job that has better pay and even better product, coworkers etc. Interviewing when you're not desperate to leave is much easier. If you have something good to fall back on, all sorts of red flags become more obvious during an interview because you have very little to lose if it doesn't go well. It's also much easier to negotiate salary, if you think you're worth 20k more than you are now, open negotiations at Salary + 30k. Since your primary concern is pay potential employers have very little leverage in terms of pressuring you to take a salary less then you think you are worth, and you already have a clear picture of what you're worth.