diff --git a/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/tools.py b/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/tools.py
index 500d570835493..4841a5ae9186b 100644
--- a/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/tools.py
+++ b/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/tools.py
@@ -423,7 +423,7 @@ def handle_shared_axes(
                 # only the first column should get y labels -> set all other to
                 # off as we only have labels in the first column and we always
                 # have a subplot there, we can skip the layout test
-                if ax.is_first_col():
+                if ax.get_subplotspec().is_first_col():
                     continue
                 if sharey or _has_externally_shared_axis(ax, "y"):
                     _remove_labels_from_axis(ax.yaxis)