diff --git a/meta/classes-global/sanity.bbclass b/meta/classes-global/sanity.bbclass
index d1452967fc..3c103d3bfb 100644
--- a/meta/classes-global/sanity.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-global/sanity.bbclass
@@ -514,12 +514,9 @@ def check_userns():
 # built buildtools-extended-tarball)
 #
 def check_gcc_version(sanity_data):
-    import subprocess
-    
-    build_cc, version = oe.utils.get_host_compiler_version(sanity_data)
-    if build_cc.strip() == "gcc":
-        if bb.utils.vercmp_string_op(version, "8.0", "<"):
-            return "Your version of gcc is older than 8.0 and will break builds. Please install a newer version of gcc (you could use the project's buildtools-extended-tarball or use scripts/install-buildtools).\n"
+    version = oe.utils.get_host_gcc_version(sanity_data)
+    if bb.utils.vercmp_string_op(version, "8.0", "<"):
+        return "Your version of gcc is older than 8.0 and will break builds. Please install a newer version of gcc (you could use the project's buildtools-extended-tarball or use scripts/install-buildtools).\n"
     return None
 
 # Tar version 1.24 and onwards handle overwriting symlinks correctly
diff --git a/meta/lib/oe/utils.py b/meta/lib/oe/utils.py
index 0378071b5c..779c5e593f 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oe/utils.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oe/utils.py
@@ -415,34 +415,29 @@ def format_pkg_list(pkg_dict, ret_format=None, pkgdata_dir=None):
     return output_str
 
 
-# Helper function to get the host compiler version
-# Do not assume the compiler is gcc
-def get_host_compiler_version(d, taskcontextonly=False):
+# Helper function to get the host gcc version
+def get_host_gcc_version(d, taskcontextonly=False):
     import re, subprocess
 
     if taskcontextonly and d.getVar('BB_WORKERCONTEXT') != '1':
         return
 
-    compiler = d.getVar("BUILD_CC")
-    # Get rid of ccache since it is not present when parsing.
-    if compiler.startswith('ccache '):
-        compiler = compiler[7:]
     try:
         env = os.environ.copy()
         # datastore PATH does not contain session PATH as set by environment-setup-...
         # this breaks the install-buildtools use-case
         # env["PATH"] = d.getVar("PATH")
-        output = subprocess.check_output("%s --version" % compiler, \
+        output = subprocess.check_output("gcc --version", \
                     shell=True, env=env, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT).decode("utf-8")
     except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
-        bb.fatal("Error running %s --version: %s" % (compiler, e.output.decode("utf-8")))
+        bb.fatal("Error running gcc --version: %s" % (e.output.decode("utf-8")))
 
     match = re.match(r".* (\d+\.\d+)\.\d+.*", output.split('\n')[0])
     if not match:
-        bb.fatal("Can't get compiler version from %s --version output" % compiler)
+        bb.fatal("Can't get compiler version from gcc --version output")
 
     version = match.group(1)
-    return compiler, version
+    return version
 
 @bb.parse.vardepsexclude("DEFAULTTUNE_MULTILIB_ORIGINAL", "OVERRIDES")
 def get_multilib_datastore(variant, d):