diff --git a/src/V3File.cpp b/src/V3File.cpp
index 7b3bd6c8a..17c5df05f 100644
--- a/src/V3File.cpp
+++ b/src/V3File.cpp
@@ -479,7 +479,9 @@ void V3OutFile::putAlign (bool/*AlignClass*/ isStatic, int align, int size, cons
     int& alignr = isStatic ? m_declSAlign : m_declNSAlign;
     int padsize = alignSize - (alignr % alignSize);
     if (padsize && padsize!=alignSize) {
-	puts("char\t");
+	// Modern versions of GCC no longer need this, they'll pad for us, so
+	// we'll save the work and danger of getting it wrong.
+	puts("//char\t");
 	puts(prefix);
 	puts("__VpadToAlign"+cvtToStr(alignr)
 	     +"["+cvtToStr(padsize)+"];\n");