diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index d580fcf4fc545..e2e6fe51b5f8b 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ repos:
         entry: python scripts/generate_pip_deps_from_conda.py
         files: ^(environment.yml|requirements-dev.txt)$
         pass_filenames: false
-        additional_dependencies: [pyyaml]
+        additional_dependencies: [pyyaml, toml]
     -   id: sync-flake8-versions
         name: Check flake8 version is synced across flake8, yesqa, and environment.yml
         language: python
diff --git a/doc/source/development/contributing_environment.rst b/doc/source/development/contributing_environment.rst
index bc0a3556b9ac1..7b52bf760b601 100644
--- a/doc/source/development/contributing_environment.rst
+++ b/doc/source/development/contributing_environment.rst
@@ -189,11 +189,8 @@ Creating a Python environment (pip)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 If you aren't using conda for your development environment, follow these instructions.
-You'll need to have at least the :ref:`minimum Python version <install.version>` that pandas supports. If your Python version
-is 3.8.0 (or later), you might need to update your ``setuptools`` to version 42.0.0 (or later)
-in your development environment before installing the build dependencies::
-
-      pip install --upgrade setuptools
+You'll need to have at least the :ref:`minimum Python version <install.version>` that pandas supports.
+You also need to have ``setuptools`` 51.0.0 or later to build pandas.
 
 **Unix**/**macOS with virtualenv**
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 86b255ab6bf58..0d1aefb9d4b55 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # Minimum requirements for the build system to execute.
 # See https://github.com/scipy/scipy/pull/12940 for the AIX issue.
 requires = [
-    "setuptools>=38.6.0",
+    "setuptools>=51.0.0",
     "wheel",
     "Cython>=0.29.21,<3",  # Note: sync with setup.py
     # Numpy requirements for different OS/architectures
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index ba78dd33fbae1..25ec5e1904d18 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -81,3 +81,4 @@ natsort
 git+https://github.com/pydata/pydata-sphinx-theme.git@master
 numpydoc < 1.2
 pandas-dev-flaker==0.2.0
+setuptools>=51.0.0
diff --git a/scripts/generate_pip_deps_from_conda.py b/scripts/generate_pip_deps_from_conda.py
index fdb891e747553..ec4b6c81f764c 100755
--- a/scripts/generate_pip_deps_from_conda.py
+++ b/scripts/generate_pip_deps_from_conda.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 import re
 import sys
 
+import toml
 import yaml
 
 EXCLUDE = {"python", "c-compiler", "cxx-compiler"}
@@ -96,6 +97,13 @@ def generate_pip_from_conda(
     )
     pip_content = header + "\n".join(pip_deps) + "\n"
 
+    # add setuptools to requirements-dev.txt
+    meta = toml.load(pathlib.Path(conda_path.parent, "pyproject.toml"))
+    for requirement in meta["build-system"]["requires"]:
+        if "setuptools" in requirement:
+            pip_content += requirement
+            pip_content += "\n"
+
     if compare:
         with pip_path.open() as file:
             return pip_content != file.read()