California public schools rank in the lowest 25% of all schools in mathematics in the fourth and eighth grades in the United States while the teachers in these schools face more scrutiny through local, statewide, and national expectations. California public schools experienced an increase in nonunion public school teachers after the passage of the Charter Schools Act in 1992, which provided an opportunity to compare job satisfaction of union and nonunion public school teachers, which may affect academic achievement. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to understand the effect of job satisfaction of 58 union and nonunion public school teachers on student achievement. Herzberg’s (1968) theory of motivators and hygiene factors, which mirrored Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, guided this study. Findings revealed that nonunion public school teachers have a higher level of job satisfaction than union teachers. Although all of the teachers were public school employees, the union teachers expressed fewer motivators then nonunion teachers regarding academic achievement of students, illustrating potentially greater academic achievement capacity from nonunion teachers.