diff --git a/src/Mod/Test/TestPythonSyntax.py b/src/Mod/Test/TestPythonSyntax.py
index f529c5e78b..f305366898 100644
--- a/src/Mod/Test/TestPythonSyntax.py
+++ b/src/Mod/Test/TestPythonSyntax.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ def test_python_syntax(rootdir, whitelist=None):
     for sub_dir, dirs, files in os.walk(rootdir):
         for fn in files:
             kargs = {}
-            if sys.version_info.major > 3:
+            if sys.version_info.major >= 3:
                 kargs["encoding"] = "utf-8"
             if (not fn in whitelist) and os.path.splitext(fn)[1] == '.py':
                 with open(os.path.join(sub_dir, fn), **kargs) as py_file: