Journalism should be the greatest job in the world, but for many journalists — even at top news outlets — it isn’t. Even the best journalists have to worry about layoffs, changes in ownership, stagnant pay and the life sacrifices the job often requires.

Freeing four wrongfully convicted people from prison with her reporting wasn’t enough to get my former colleague Michelle Mondo a raise at her local newspaper. If that isn’t the kind of journalism that should be celebrated and rewarded, what is? At the time, she was making $45,000 a year. That was in 2010 and with a decade of experience. Now she’s a private investigator. She owns her own company, Mondo Investigations, and can easily earn double that amount in a fraction of the time while enjoying a better quality of life.

Another former colleague left journalism for law school and became an immigration attorney. At least one former colleague joined the Foreign Service. A friend with a very good managerial journalism job said they wouldn’t hesitate to look outside the industry should their role evaporate or the job becomes untenable. There comes a point where the tradeoffs just aren’t worth it.

There are plenty of ways to do meaningful work in this world, and there are plenty of ways to practice journalism outside of full-time news jobs.

Journalists pour their hearts and souls into the job. They fight for justice and often sacrifice parts of themselves in the process. They report from war zones so atrocities can’t be pushed aside and forgotten so easily. They investigate exorbitant medical bills and incorrect water and property tax bills, helping readers and viewers keep their homes and avoid a lifetime of debt. They bravely go into protests expecting to be pepper sprayed. They wake up in the middle of the night to cover mass shootings and compassionately interview victims’ families while their own families wait patiently for them at home.

Instead of rewarding these things with fair pay, job security, and moral support, journalism as an industry exploits their love of the craft. Nothing seems to be enough to prevent a layoff, warrant a raise, or get health insurance with robust mental health benefits. Even Pulitzer Prize winners aren’t immune from losing their jobs.

As long as I’ve been in journalism, we’ve been told we should feel lucky to have jobs, even if they don’t pay enough to live in the expensive cities they require us to move to. We’ve been told to get second jobs if we need to, keep our personal feelings to ourselves on social media and keep quiet about things we would investigate were they happening at other companies.

What we should get is fair pay for our work, robust benefits, time off to recharge from what can be a grueling job and the psychological safety to dissent.

Journalists love the work and serving their communities. As long as journalism continues to take advantage of that, the kinds of journalists newsrooms need most are going to keep moving on, even from places that once looked like the home of dream jobs.