diff --git a/salt/modules/cron.py b/salt/modules/cron.py
index ab8b0b2f8b..355ba40b50 100644
--- a/salt/modules/cron.py
+++ b/salt/modules/cron.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import random
 import salt.utils
 import salt.utils.files
 from salt.ext.six.moves import range
-
+from salt.utils.locales import sdecode
 
 TAG = '# Lines below here are managed by Salt, do not edit\n'
 SALT_CRON_IDENTIFIER = 'SALT_CRON_IDENTIFIER'
@@ -264,16 +264,16 @@ def raw_cron(user):
     if _check_instance_uid_match(user) or __grains__.get('os_family') in ('Solaris', 'AIX'):
         cmd = 'crontab -l'
         # Preserve line endings
-        lines = __salt__['cmd.run_stdout'](cmd,
+        lines = sdecode(__salt__['cmd.run_stdout'](cmd,
                                            runas=user,
                                            rstrip=False,
-                                           python_shell=False).splitlines(True)
+                                           python_shell=False)).splitlines(True)
     else:
         cmd = 'crontab -u {0} -l'.format(user)
         # Preserve line endings
-        lines = __salt__['cmd.run_stdout'](cmd,
+        lines = sdecode(__salt__['cmd.run_stdout'](cmd,
                                            rstrip=False,
-                                           python_shell=False).splitlines(True)
+                                           python_shell=False)).splitlines(True)
 
     if len(lines) != 0 and lines[0].startswith('# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.'):
         del lines[0:3]