diff --git a/slather.gemspec b/slather.gemspec
index d555f14..0303237 100644
--- a/slather.gemspec
+++ b/slather.gemspec
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.homepage      = 'https://github.com/SlatherOrg/slather'
   spec.license       = 'MIT'
 
-  spec.files         = `git ls-files -z`.split("\x0")
+  spec.files         = `git ls-files -z`.force_encoding('utf-8').split("\x0")
   spec.executables   = spec.files.grep(%r{^bin/}) { |f| File.basename(f) }
   spec.test_files    = spec.files.grep(%r{^(test|spec|features)/})
   spec.require_paths = ['lib']