diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/scale/scale.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/scale/scale.go
index f46be57e8fd..1607ef3ff59 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/scale/scale.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/scale/scale.go
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ func NewCmdScale(f cmdutil.Factory, ioStreams genericclioptions.IOStreams) *cobr
 	cmd.Flags().StringVarP(&o.Selector, "selector", "l", o.Selector, "Selector (label query) to filter on, supports '=', '==', and '!='.(e.g. -l key1=value1,key2=value2)")
 	cmd.Flags().BoolVar(&o.All, "all", o.All, "Select all resources in the namespace of the specified resource types")
 	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&o.ResourceVersion, "resource-version", o.ResourceVersion, i18n.T("Precondition for resource version. Requires that the current resource version match this value in order to scale."))
-	cmd.Flags().IntVar(&o.CurrentReplicas, "current-replicas", o.CurrentReplicas, "Precondition for current size. Requires that the current size of the resource match this value in order to scale.")
+	cmd.Flags().IntVar(&o.CurrentReplicas, "current-replicas", o.CurrentReplicas, "Precondition for current size. Requires that the current size of the resource match this value in order to scale. -1 (default) for no condition.")
 	cmd.Flags().IntVar(&o.Replicas, "replicas", o.Replicas, "The new desired number of replicas. Required.")
 	cmd.MarkFlagRequired("replicas")
 	cmd.Flags().DurationVar(&o.Timeout, "timeout", 0, "The length of time to wait before giving up on a scale operation, zero means don't wait. Any other values should contain a corresponding time unit (e.g. 1s, 2m, 3h).")
@@ -185,6 +185,10 @@ func (o *ScaleOptions) Validate(cmd *cobra.Command) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("The --replicas=COUNT flag is required, and COUNT must be greater than or equal to 0")
 	}
 
+	if o.CurrentReplicas < -1 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("The --current-replicas must specify an integer of -1 or greater")
+	}
+
 	return nil
 }