diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 319346a86..e1eb05f94 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 # HDMF Changelog
 
+## Upcoming
+
+### Bug fix
+- Add explicit `setuptools` requirement. @hrnciar (#596)
+
 ## HDMF 2.5.1 (April 23, 2021)
 
 ### Bug fix
diff --git a/requirements-min.txt b/requirements-min.txt
index 43af2abe4..19a0c076f 100644
--- a/requirements-min.txt
+++ b/requirements-min.txt
@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@ scipy==1.1,<2
 pandas==0.23,<2
 ruamel.yaml==0.15,<1
 jsonschema==2.6.0,<4
+setuptools
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 0c470b0f1..f14e349d5 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@ scipy==1.5.4
 pandas==1.1.5
 ruamel.yaml==0.17.4
 jsonschema==3.2.0
+setuptools==56.0.0