diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/resource/math.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/resource/math.go
index e0344f2ca4..7f63175d3e 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/resource/math.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/resource/math.go
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ func negativeScaleInt64(base int64, scale Scale) (result int64, exact bool) {
 		if base > 0 {
 			value++
 		} else {
-			value += -1
+			value--
 		}
 	}
 	return value, !fraction