diff --git a/pkg/controller/podautoscaler/horizontal.go b/pkg/controller/podautoscaler/horizontal.go
index e878b271126..2c39c1a5bb1 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/podautoscaler/horizontal.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/podautoscaler/horizontal.go
@@ -819,7 +819,7 @@ func (a *HorizontalController) reconcileAutoscaler(ctx context.Context, hpaShare
 	rescale := true
 	logger := klog.FromContext(ctx)
 
-	if scale.Spec.Replicas == 0 && minReplicas != 0 {
+	if currentReplicas == 0 && minReplicas != 0 {
 		// Autoscaling is disabled for this resource
 		desiredReplicas = 0
 		rescale = false