diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/test_parquet.py b/pandas/tests/io/test_parquet.py
index 15f9837176315..35a400cba8671 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/test_parquet.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/test_parquet.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import numpy as np
 import pytest
 
+from pandas.compat import PY38
 import pandas.util._test_decorators as td
 
 import pandas as pd
@@ -564,8 +565,19 @@ def test_s3_roundtrip(self, df_compat, s3_resource, pa, s3so):
             write_kwargs=s3so,
         )
 
-    @td.skip_if_no("s3fs")
-    @pytest.mark.parametrize("partition_col", [["A"], []])
+    @td.skip_if_no("s3fs")  # also requires flask
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "partition_col",
+        [
+            pytest.param(
+                ["A"],
+                marks=pytest.mark.xfail(
+                    PY38, reason="Getting back empty DataFrame", raises=AssertionError,
+                ),
+            ),
+            [],
+        ],
+    )
     def test_s3_roundtrip_for_dir(
         self, df_compat, s3_resource, pa, partition_col, s3so
     ):