diff --git a/pkgs/applications/science/math/readstat/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/science/math/readstat/default.nix
index cb9c16b28744..bb945b06ba13 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/science/math/readstat/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/science/math/readstat/default.nix
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   buildInputs = [ libiconv ];
 
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
   meta = {
     homepage = "https://github.com/WizardMac/ReadStat";
     description = "Command-line tool (+ C library) for converting SAS, Stata, and SPSS files";