While a growing number of countries and sub-national localities are banning smoking in hospitality workplaces, extant research on the impacts of smoke-free legislation has centered on hospitality employees and industries in developed countries. Hoping to assist in filling this void, this research empirically explores the relationships among café employees’ attitudes, demographics, work-related variables (WRV), and job satisfaction before the introduction of a smoke-free legislation in one transition economy, i.e. Bosnia-Herzegovina. Results revealed that café area served, gender, average weekly workload, café seating allocation, and education were for the most part not significant in explaining different perceptions toward a smoking ban. However, respondents’ preferred café smoking policy, smoking status, hospitality work experience, job satisfaction, and age did influence how respondents viewed the smoking ban. In terms of respondents’ preferred café smoking policy, significant differences were noted due to smoking status and café seating allocation. In regards to job satisfaction, staff with more positive pre-implementation attitudes towards the ban exhibit significantly higher levels of dissatisfaction with the current job. Overall, respondents appear willing to make concessions for both pro- and anti-smoking patrons, staff, and owners/managers. Therefore, lawmakers should consider population characteristics, seating allocation, and the combination thereof when devising café smoking policies.