diff --git a/programs/fileio.c b/programs/fileio.c
index da5412f27..b786b7e4d 100644
--- a/programs/fileio.c
+++ b/programs/fileio.c
@@ -1647,6 +1647,7 @@ static int FIO_compressFilename_dstFile(FIO_ctx_t* const fCtx,
     int closeDstFile = 0;
     int result;
     stat_t statbuf;
+    int transferMTime = 0;
     assert(ress.srcFile != NULL);
     if (ress.dstFile == NULL) {
         int dstFilePermissions = DEFAULT_FILE_PERMISSIONS;
@@ -1654,6 +1655,7 @@ static int FIO_compressFilename_dstFile(FIO_ctx_t* const fCtx,
           && UTIL_stat(srcFileName, &statbuf)
           && UTIL_isRegularFileStat(&statbuf) ) {
             dstFilePermissions = statbuf.st_mode;
+            transferMTime = 1;
         }
 
         closeDstFile = 1;
@@ -1680,6 +1682,9 @@ static int FIO_compressFilename_dstFile(FIO_ctx_t* const fCtx,
             DISPLAYLEVEL(1, "zstd: %s: %s \n", dstFileName, strerror(errno));
             result=1;
         }
+        if (transferMTime) {
+            UTIL_utime(dstFileName, &statbuf);
+        }
         if ( (result != 0)  /* operation failure */
           && strcmp(dstFileName, stdoutmark)  /* special case : don't remove() stdout */
           ) {
@@ -2553,6 +2558,7 @@ static int FIO_decompressDstFile(FIO_ctx_t* const fCtx,
     int result;
     stat_t statbuf;
     int releaseDstFile = 0;
+    int transferMTime = 0;
 
     if ((ress.dstFile == NULL) && (prefs->testMode==0)) {
         int dstFilePermissions = DEFAULT_FILE_PERMISSIONS;
@@ -2560,6 +2566,7 @@ static int FIO_decompressDstFile(FIO_ctx_t* const fCtx,
           && UTIL_stat(srcFileName, &statbuf)
           && UTIL_isRegularFileStat(&statbuf) ) {
             dstFilePermissions = statbuf.st_mode;
+            transferMTime = 1;
         }
 
         releaseDstFile = 1;
@@ -2585,6 +2592,10 @@ static int FIO_decompressDstFile(FIO_ctx_t* const fCtx,
             result = 1;
         }
 
+        if (transferMTime) {
+            UTIL_utime(dstFileName, &statbuf);
+        }
+
         if ( (result != 0)  /* operation failure */
           && strcmp(dstFileName, stdoutmark)  /* special case : don't remove() stdout */
           ) {
diff --git a/programs/util.c b/programs/util.c
index 81c10d0ca..b29177818 100644
--- a/programs/util.c
+++ b/programs/util.c
@@ -159,6 +159,29 @@ int UTIL_chmod(char const* filename, const stat_t* statbuf, mode_t permissions)
     return chmod(filename, permissions);
 }
 
+/* set access and modification times */
+int UTIL_utime(const char* filename, const stat_t *statbuf)
+{
+    int ret;
+    /* We check that st_mtime is a macro here in order to give us confidence
+     * that struct stat has a struct timespec st_mtim member. We need this
+     * check because there are some platforms that claim to be POSIX 2008
+     * compliant but which do not have st_mtim... */
+#if (PLATFORM_POSIX_VERSION >= 200809L) && defined(st_mtime)
+    /* (atime, mtime) */
+    struct timespec timebuf[2] = { {0, UTIME_NOW} };
+    timebuf[1] = statbuf->st_mtim;
+    ret = utimensat(AT_FDCWD, filename, timebuf, 0);
+#else
+    struct utimbuf timebuf;
+    timebuf.actime = time(NULL);
+    timebuf.modtime = statbuf->st_mtime;
+    ret = utime(filename, &timebuf);
+#endif
+    errno = 0;
+    return ret;
+}
+
 int UTIL_setFileStat(const char *filename, const stat_t *statbuf)
 {
     int res = 0;
@@ -168,25 +191,7 @@ int UTIL_setFileStat(const char *filename, const stat_t *statbuf)
         return -1;
 
     /* set access and modification times */
-    /* We check that st_mtime is a macro here in order to give us confidence
-     * that struct stat has a struct timespec st_mtim member. We need this
-     * check because there are some platforms that claim to be POSIX 2008
-     * compliant but which do not have st_mtim... */
-#if (PLATFORM_POSIX_VERSION >= 200809L) && defined(st_mtime)
-    {
-        /* (atime, mtime) */
-        struct timespec timebuf[2] = { {0, UTIME_NOW} };
-        timebuf[1] = statbuf->st_mtim;
-        res += utimensat(AT_FDCWD, filename, timebuf, 0);
-    }
-#else
-    {
-        struct utimbuf timebuf;
-        timebuf.actime = time(NULL);
-        timebuf.modtime = statbuf->st_mtime;
-        res += utime(filename, &timebuf);
-    }
-#endif
+    res += UTIL_utime(filename, statbuf);
 
 #if !defined(_WIN32)
     res += chown(filename, statbuf->st_uid, statbuf->st_gid);  /* Copy ownership */
diff --git a/programs/util.h b/programs/util.h
index c1c963434..7632b9a0a 100644
--- a/programs/util.h
+++ b/programs/util.h
@@ -136,6 +136,14 @@ int UTIL_stat(const char* filename, stat_t* statbuf);
  */
 int UTIL_setFileStat(const char* filename, const stat_t* statbuf);
 
+/**
+ * Set atime to now and mtime to the st_mtim in statbuf.
+ *
+ * Directly wraps utime() or utimensat(). Returns -1 on error.
+ * Does not validate filename is valid.
+ */
+int UTIL_utime(const char* filename, const stat_t *statbuf);
+
 /*
  * These helpers operate on a pre-populated stat_t, i.e., the result of
  * calling one of the above functions.
diff --git a/tests/playTests.sh b/tests/playTests.sh
index ce585f226..d83001fee 100755
--- a/tests/playTests.sh
+++ b/tests/playTests.sh
@@ -124,6 +124,13 @@ case "$UNAME" in
     Darwin | FreeBSD | OpenBSD | NetBSD) MTIME="stat -f %m" ;;
 esac
 
+assertSameMTime() {
+    MT1=$($MTIME "$1")
+    MT2=$($MTIME "$2")
+    echo MTIME $MT1 $MT2
+    [ "$MT1" = "$MT2" ] || die "mtime on $1 doesn't match mtime on $2 ($MT1 != $MT2)"
+}
+
 GET_PERMS="stat -c %a"
 case "$UNAME" in
     Darwin | FreeBSD | OpenBSD | NetBSD) GET_PERMS="stat -f %Lp" ;;
@@ -588,6 +595,17 @@ if [ -n "$READFROMBLOCKDEVICE" ] ; then
     rm -f tmp.img tmp.img.zst tmp.img.copy
 fi
 
+println "\n===>  zstd created file timestamp tests"
+datagen > tmp
+touch -m -t 200001010000.00 tmp
+println "test : copy mtime in file -> file compression "
+zstd -f tmp -o tmp.zst
+assertSameMTime tmp tmp.zst
+println "test : copy mtime in file -> file decompression "
+zstd -f -d tmp.zst -o tmp.out
+assertSameMTime tmp.zst tmp.out
+rm -f tmp
+
 println "\n===>  compress multiple files into an output directory, --output-dir-flat"
 println henlo > tmp1
 mkdir tmpInputTestDir