diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 7e4112129..923338269 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+1.4.16
+ * Fix for missing Healthchecks monitoring payload or HTTP 500 due to incorrect unicode encoding.
+
 1.4.15
  * Fix for database dump removal incorrectly skipping some database dumps.
  * #123: Support for mounting an archive as a FUSE filesystem via "borgmatic mount" action, and
diff --git a/borgmatic/hooks/healthchecks.py b/borgmatic/hooks/healthchecks.py
index 19201d0f0..a116205a8 100644
--- a/borgmatic/hooks/healthchecks.py
+++ b/borgmatic/hooks/healthchecks.py
@@ -97,4 +97,4 @@ def ping_monitor(ping_url_or_uuid, config_filename, state, dry_run):
 
     if not dry_run:
         logging.getLogger('urllib3').setLevel(logging.ERROR)
-        requests.post(ping_url, data=payload)
+        requests.post(ping_url, data=payload.encode('utf-8'))
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index cf16442ab..46871a9cc 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 from setuptools import find_packages, setup
 
-VERSION = '1.4.15'
+VERSION = '1.4.16'
 
 
 setup(
diff --git a/tests/unit/hooks/test_healthchecks.py b/tests/unit/hooks/test_healthchecks.py
index cbb9cc76a..24e8fca06 100644
--- a/tests/unit/hooks/test_healthchecks.py
+++ b/tests/unit/hooks/test_healthchecks.py
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ def test_ping_monitor_hits_ping_url_for_start_state():
     flexmock(module).should_receive('Forgetful_buffering_handler')
     ping_url = 'https://example.com'
     flexmock(module.requests).should_receive('post').with_args(
-        '{}/{}'.format(ping_url, 'start'), data=''
+        '{}/{}'.format(ping_url, 'start'), data=''.encode('utf-8')
     )
 
     module.ping_monitor(ping_url, 'config.yaml', state=module.monitor.State.START, dry_run=False)
@@ -68,19 +68,21 @@ def test_ping_monitor_hits_ping_url_for_start_state():
 
 def test_ping_monitor_hits_ping_url_for_finish_state():
     ping_url = 'https://example.com'
-    payload = flexmock()
+    payload = 'data'
     flexmock(module).should_receive('format_buffered_logs_for_payload').and_return(payload)
-    flexmock(module.requests).should_receive('post').with_args(ping_url, data=payload)
+    flexmock(module.requests).should_receive('post').with_args(
+        ping_url, data=payload.encode('utf-8')
+    )
 
     module.ping_monitor(ping_url, 'config.yaml', state=module.monitor.State.FINISH, dry_run=False)
 
 
 def test_ping_monitor_hits_ping_url_for_fail_state():
     ping_url = 'https://example.com'
-    payload = flexmock()
+    payload = 'data'
     flexmock(module).should_receive('format_buffered_logs_for_payload').and_return(payload)
     flexmock(module.requests).should_receive('post').with_args(
-        '{}/{}'.format(ping_url, 'fail'), data=payload
+        '{}/{}'.format(ping_url, 'fail'), data=payload.encode('utf')
     )
 
     module.ping_monitor(ping_url, 'config.yaml', state=module.monitor.State.FAIL, dry_run=False)
@@ -88,10 +90,10 @@ def test_ping_monitor_hits_ping_url_for_fail_state():
 
 def test_ping_monitor_with_ping_uuid_hits_corresponding_url():
     ping_uuid = 'abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop'
-    payload = flexmock()
+    payload = 'data'
     flexmock(module).should_receive('format_buffered_logs_for_payload').and_return(payload)
     flexmock(module.requests).should_receive('post').with_args(
-        'https://hc-ping.com/{}'.format(ping_uuid), data=payload
+        'https://hc-ping.com/{}'.format(ping_uuid), data=payload.encode('utf-8')
     )
 
     module.ping_monitor(ping_uuid, 'config.yaml', state=module.monitor.State.FINISH, dry_run=False)