diff --git a/eclass/toolchain-glibc.eclass b/eclass/toolchain-glibc.eclass
index ef9d91acae..ce79977962 100644
--- a/eclass/toolchain-glibc.eclass
+++ b/eclass/toolchain-glibc.eclass
@@ -264,14 +264,18 @@ setup_flags() {
 	filter-flags -fstack-protector*
 	gcc-specs-ssp && append-flags $(test-flags -fno-stack-protector)
 
-	if use hardened && gcc-specs-pie ; then
-		# Force PIC macro definition for all compilations since they're all
-		# either -fPIC or -fPIE with the default-PIE compiler.
-		append-cppflags -DPIC
-	else
-		# Don't build -fPIE without the default-PIE compiler and the
-		# hardened-pie patch
-		filter-flags -fPIE
+	# Spec files are only used in <sys-devel/gcc-6. We can skip the check and depend
+	# on default enable/disable via the useflags on >=sys-devel/gcc-6
+	if has_version '<sys-devel/gcc-6' ; then
+		if use hardened && gcc-specs-pie ; then
+			# Force PIC macro definition for all compilations since they're all
+			# either -fPIC or -fPIE with the default-PIE compiler.
+			append-cppflags -DPIC
+		else
+			# Don't build -fPIE without the default-PIE compiler and the
+			# hardened-pie patch
+			filter-flags -fPIE
+		fi
 	fi
 }
 
@@ -533,8 +537,11 @@ toolchain-glibc_pkg_pretend() {
 		ewarn "hypervisor, which is probably not what you want."
 	fi
 
-	use hardened && ! gcc-specs-pie && \
+	# Spec files are only avaliable in <sys-devel/gcc-6
+	has_version '<sys-devel/gcc-6'  && \
+		use hardened && ! gcc-specs-pie && \
 		ewarn "PIE hardening not applied, as your compiler doesn't default to PIE"
+	
 
 	# Make sure host system is up to date #394453
 	if has_version '<sys-libs/glibc-2.13' && \