Although a substantial body of literature compares the job satisfaction of employees to that of the self-employed, scholars rarely take into account the heterogeneity of the latter population. We compare the level and the drivers of job satisfaction of founders and successors in family businesses. Building on the notion of procedural utility, which entails the gratification that individuals experience in the process of performing a task, we find that job satisfaction and perceived discretion in decision making is lower for successors. We also find that perceived discretion fully mediates the relationship between mode of entry into entrepreneurship and job satisfaction.