diff --git a/src/basic/path-util.c b/src/basic/path-util.c
index ef2ba44062..e91a17b398 100644
--- a/src/basic/path-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/path-util.c
@@ -1264,15 +1264,15 @@ bool dot_or_dot_dot(const char *path) {
         return path[2] == 0;
 }
 
-bool empty_or_root(const char *root) {
+bool empty_or_root(const char *path) {
 
         /* For operations relative to some root directory, returns true if the specified root directory is redundant,
          * i.e. either / or NULL or the empty string or any equivalent. */
 
-        if (!root)
+        if (isempty(path))
                 return true;
 
-        return root[strspn(root, "/")] == 0;
+        return path_equal(path, "/");
 }
 
 bool path_strv_contains(char **l, const char *path) {
diff --git a/src/basic/path-util.h b/src/basic/path-util.h
index fad40bd8b6..9fa8b5b75c 100644
--- a/src/basic/path-util.h
+++ b/src/basic/path-util.h
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ static inline const char *skip_dev_prefix(const char *p) {
         return e ?: p;
 }
 
-bool empty_or_root(const char *root);
+bool empty_or_root(const char *path);
 static inline const char *empty_to_root(const char *path) {
         return isempty(path) ? "/" : path;
 }