diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 29604e9..7c0719e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -46,6 +46,3 @@ The script is licensed under the
 
 I didn't invent the wheel, just packaged it nicely. All credits go to the
 [Ghostscript](http://www.ghostscript.com) team.
-
-Many thanks to Dr. Alun J. Carr for fixing a portability issue on Mac OS X
-regarding leading whitespace in the output of `wc`.
diff --git a/shrinkpdf.sh b/shrinkpdf.sh
index 0a4c5de..a0cc947 100644
--- a/shrinkpdf.sh
+++ b/shrinkpdf.sh
@@ -57,8 +57,8 @@ check_smaller ()
 	if [ ! -f "$1" ] || [ ! -f "$2" ]; then
 		return 0;
 	fi
-	ISIZE="$(echo $(wc -c "$1") | cut -f1 -d\ )"
-	OSIZE="$(echo $(wc -c "$2") | cut -f1 -d\ )"
+	ISIZE="$(wc -c "$1" | awk '{ print $1 }')"
+	OSIZE="$(wc -c "$2" | awk '{ print $1 }')"
 	if [ "$ISIZE" -lt "$OSIZE" ]; then
 		echo "Input smaller than output, doing straight copy" >&2
 		cp "$1" "$2"