diff --git a/pre_commit/xargs.py b/pre_commit/xargs.py
index 1b237a38..2cbd6c39 100644
--- a/pre_commit/xargs.py
+++ b/pre_commit/xargs.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ def _get_command_length(command, arg):
     if sys.platform == 'win32':
         return len(full_cmd)
 
-    return len(full_cmd.encode(sys.getdefaultencoding()))
+    return len(full_cmd.encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding()))
 
 
 class ArgumentTooLongError(RuntimeError):
diff --git a/tests/xargs_test.py b/tests/xargs_test.py
index e68f46c5..73ba9bc6 100644
--- a/tests/xargs_test.py
+++ b/tests/xargs_test.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ from pre_commit import xargs
 def sys_win32_mock(mocker):
     return mocker.Mock(
         platform='win32',
-        getdefaultencoding=mocker.Mock(return_value='utf-8'),
+        getfilesystemencoding=mocker.Mock(return_value='utf-8'),
     )
 
 
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ def sys_win32_mock(mocker):
 def sys_linux_mock(mocker):
     return mocker.Mock(
         platform='linux',
-        getdefaultencoding=mocker.Mock(return_value='utf-8'),
+        getfilesystemencoding=mocker.Mock(return_value='utf-8'),
     )