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This article extends current understandings of sources of job (dis)satisfaction for childcare staff by investigating the hypothesis that early childhood professionals’ satisfaction with regulatory requirements is a predictor of job satisfaction. Findings show that for early childhood professionals in New South Wales, Australia, satisfaction with the regulatory environment is related to the extent these requirements are perceived to support autonomous professional practices conducive to quality care. Considerable dissatisfaction with regulatory requirements was found among study participants. Nonetheless, this level of dissatisfaction did not predict job (dis)satisfaction. The lack of correlation may be indicative of the study’s sample, however, and does not preclude a greater connection between the two constructs. Implications of a possible nexus between job satisfaction and satisfaction with regulatory requirements are discussed, and further research is called for.

The regulatory environment in which long daycare centres are required to operate plays a key role in determining what early childhood professionals do and how they go about doing it. This paper reports findings from a state‐wide survey undertaken in New South Wales, Australia, which shows how early childhood professionals position themselves on four key aspects of the regulatory environment: the premises underlying regulatory requirements; its perceived support of them as professionals to provide quality care; how state regulations and the national accreditation system impact upon their daily practice; and the way these audit systems affect their professional esteem. Implications for job satisfaction are discussed. The paper concludes by asserting that regulatory requirements need to be evaluated in terms of their contribution to structural, process, contextual and work environment dimensions of quality.