diff --git a/luigi/contrib/spark.py b/luigi/contrib/spark.py
index 668b7ba19a..84068043f1 100644
--- a/luigi/contrib/spark.py
+++ b/luigi/contrib/spark.py
@@ -292,6 +292,10 @@ def files(self):
         if self.deploy_mode == "cluster":
             return [self.run_pickle]
 
+    @property
+    def pickle_protocol(self):
+        return configuration.get_config().getint('spark', 'pickle-protocol', pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL)
+
     def setup(self, conf):
         """
         Called by the pyspark_runner with a SparkConf instance that will be used to instantiate the SparkContext
@@ -335,12 +339,12 @@ def run(self):
     def _dump(self, fd):
         with self.no_unpicklable_properties():
             if self.__module__ == '__main__':
-                d = pickle.dumps(self)
+                d = pickle.dumps(self, protocol=self.pickle_protocol)
                 module_name = os.path.basename(sys.argv[0]).rsplit('.', 1)[0]
                 d = d.replace(b'c__main__', b'c' + module_name.encode('ascii'))
                 fd.write(d)
             else:
-                pickle.dump(self, fd)
+                pickle.dump(self, fd, protocol=self.pickle_protocol)
 
     def _setup_packages(self, sc):
         """