diff --git a/Lib/posixpath.py b/Lib/posixpath.py
index 090f245eb63..792a9856d5d 100644
--- a/Lib/posixpath.py
+++ b/Lib/posixpath.py
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ def getmtime(filename):
 def getatime(filename):
     """Return the last access time of a file, reported by os.stat()."""
     st = os.stat(filename)
-    return st[stat.ST_MTIME]
+    return st[stat.ST_ATIME]
 
 
 # Is a path a symbolic link?