diff --git a/src/cmd/ksh93/tests/builtins.sh b/src/cmd/ksh93/tests/builtins.sh
index 680548e14..a482789b6 100755
--- a/src/cmd/ksh93/tests/builtins.sh
+++ b/src/cmd/ksh93/tests/builtins.sh
@@ -349,8 +349,8 @@ fi
 # ======
 # we won't get hit by the one second boundary twice, right?
 expect= actual=
-{ expect=$(LC_ALL=C date | sed 's/ GMT / UTC /') && actual=$(LC_ALL=C printf '%T\n' now) && [[ $actual == "$expect" ]]; } ||
-{ expect=$(LC_ALL=C date | sed 's/ GMT / UTC /') && actual=$(LC_ALL=C printf '%T\n' now) && [[ $actual == "$expect" ]]; } ||
+{ expect=$(LC_ALL=C date) && actual=$(LC_ALL=C printf '%T\n' now) && [[ ${actual/ GMT / UTC } == "${expect/ GMT / UTC }" ]]; } ||
+{ expect=$(LC_ALL=C date) && actual=$(LC_ALL=C printf '%T\n' now) && [[ ${actual/ GMT / UTC } == "${expect/ GMT / UTC }" ]]; } ||
 err_exit 'printf "%T" now' "(expected $(printf %q "$expect"), got $(printf %q "$actual"))"
 behead()
 {