diff --git a/lib/menubar/utils.lua b/lib/menubar/utils.lua
index 044724e03..442fd99b0 100644
--- a/lib/menubar/utils.lua
+++ b/lib/menubar/utils.lua
@@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ end
 -- @tparam number|screen s Screen
 -- @treturn int Text width.
 function utils.compute_text_width(text, s)
-    return utils.compute_textbox_width(wibox.widget.textbox(gstring.escape(text)), s)
+    return utils.compute_textbox_width(wibox.widget.textbox(gstring.xml_escape(text)), s)
 end
 
 return utils