diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d653c47..f406d9b 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@
     sources=[os.path.join('bwapy', 'libbwapy.c'), os.path.join('bwapy', 'memopts.c')],
     include_dirs=['bwa'],
     extra_compile_args=['-pedantic', '-Wall', '-std=c99', '-march=native', '-ffast-math', '-DUSE_SSE2', '-DNDEBUG'],
-    libraries=[],
+    libraries=['z'],
     extra_objects=[os.path.join('bwa','libbwa.a')]
 ))