diff --git a/src/material/paginator/_m2-paginator.scss b/src/material/paginator/_m2-paginator.scss
index 92ef577b52f1..4bc0a6ff21d8 100644
--- a/src/material/paginator/_m2-paginator.scss
+++ b/src/material/paginator/_m2-paginator.scss
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 @use '../core/theming/theming';
 @use '../core/theming/inspection';
 @use '../core/tokens/m2-utils';
+@use '../core/tokens/m3-utils';
 
 // Tokens that can't be configured through Angular Material's current theming API,
 // but may be in a future version of the theming API.
@@ -18,7 +19,7 @@
     paginator-container-text-color: map.get($system, on-surface),
     paginator-container-background-color: map.get($system, surface),
     paginator-enabled-icon-color: map.get($system, on-surface-variant),
-    paginator-disabled-icon-color: inspection.get-theme-color($theme, foreground, base, 0.12),
+    paginator-disabled-icon-color: m3-utils.color-with-opacity(map.get($system, on-surface), 38%),
   );
 }