diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 078a65fc..a4257993 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2014-11-01  Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>
+
+	* configure.ac: Use pkg-config to check for zlib presence and
+	fallback to the previous code if that doesn't work.
+
 2014-07-28  Ángel González <keisial@gmail.com>
 	* contrib: Created contrib folder.
 	* contrib/tsocked-wget: Added wrapper for usage with socks proxy.
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 88401cf6..23048ba3 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -263,9 +263,17 @@ dnl
 dnl Checks for libraries.
 dnl
 
+PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG
+
 AS_IF([test x"$with_zlib" != xno], [
   with_zlib=yes
-  AC_CHECK_LIB(z, compress)
+  PKG_CHECK_MODULES([ZLIB], zlib, [
+    LIBS="$ZLIB_LIBS $LIBS"
+    CFLAGS="$ZLIB_CFLAGS $CFLAGS"
+    AC_DEFINE([HAVE_LIBZ], [1], [Define if using zlib.])
+  ], [
+    AC_CHECK_LIB(z, compress)
+  ])
 ])
 
 AS_IF([test x"$with_ssl" = xopenssl], [