diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-dask/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-dask/package.py
index 725d47b97c04b5f192a9180f742ed224338c981c..cf0a16f21e355dfd5a7d0ef888b955d78fad89d2 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-dask/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-dask/package.py
@@ -9,5 +9,7 @@ class PyDask(Package):
 
     extends('python')
 
+    depends_on('py-setuptools')
+
     def install(self, spec, prefix):
         python('setup.py', 'install', '--prefix=%s' % prefix)
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-decorator/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-decorator/package.py
index 99e3dbc49cc7249f80eba29352f26a225353417e..abbd9f43d14f9536e433d9d072c1ce1486f8272b 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-decorator/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-decorator/package.py
@@ -9,5 +9,7 @@ class PyDecorator(Package):
 
     extends('python')
 
+    depends_on('py-setuptools')
+
     def install(self, spec, prefix):
         python('setup.py', 'install', '--prefix=%s' % prefix)