diff --git a/src/builtins/path.cpp b/src/builtins/path.cpp
index aa0fb2fae..4a595093b 100644
--- a/src/builtins/path.cpp
+++ b/src/builtins/path.cpp
@@ -623,9 +623,9 @@ static int path_mtime(parser_t &parser, io_streams_t &streams, int argc, const w
             n_transformed++;
 
             if (!opts.relative) {
-                path_out(streams, opts, to_string(ret.change_seconds));
+                path_out(streams, opts, to_string(ret.mod_seconds));
             } else {
-                path_out(streams, opts, to_string(t - ret.change_seconds));
+                path_out(streams, opts, to_string(t - ret.mod_seconds));
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/tests/checks/path.fish b/tests/checks/path.fish
index 79c1a5dd2..f4a9c0f3e 100644
--- a/tests/checks/path.fish
+++ b/tests/checks/path.fish
@@ -216,3 +216,7 @@ or echo mtime is too small
 
 test $mtime -lt 20
 or echo mtime is too large
+
+touch -m -t 197001020000.00 epoch
+path mtime epoch
+# CHECK: 82800