diff --git a/pre_commit_hooks/trailing_whitespace_fixer.py b/pre_commit_hooks/trailing_whitespace_fixer.py
index 20b08fe..3f100bb 100644
--- a/pre_commit_hooks/trailing_whitespace_fixer.py
+++ b/pre_commit_hooks/trailing_whitespace_fixer.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ def fix_trailing_whitespace(argv):
     if bad_whitespace_files:
         for bad_whitespace_file in bad_whitespace_files:
             print('Fixing {0}'.format(bad_whitespace_file))
-            local['sed']['-i', '-e', 's/[[:space:]]*$//', bad_whitespace_file]()
+            local['sed']['-i', '', '-e', 's/[[:space:]]*$//', bad_whitespace_file]()
         return 1
     else:
         return 0