diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 2f760be1..4aa82c02 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -565,8 +565,8 @@ function hookIntoCompiler (compiler, options, plugin) {
      */
     const webpackPublicPath = compilation.getAssetPath(compilation.outputOptions.publicPath, { hash: compilationHash });
 
-    // Webpack 5 introduced "auto" - however it can not be retrieved at compile time
-    const isPublicPathDefined = webpackPublicPath.trim() !== '' && webpackPublicPath !== 'auto';
+    // Webpack 5 introduced "auto" as default value
+    const isPublicPathDefined = webpackPublicPath !== 'auto';
 
     let publicPath =
       // If the html-webpack-plugin options contain a custom public path uset it
diff --git a/spec/basic.spec.js b/spec/basic.spec.js
index f9773403..61d392ae 100644
--- a/spec/basic.spec.js
+++ b/spec/basic.spec.js
@@ -843,6 +843,37 @@ describe('HtmlWebpackPlugin', () => {
     }, ['<script defer="defer" src="/assets/index_bundle.js"'], null, done);
   });
 
+  it('allows to set public path to an empty string', done => {
+    testHtmlPlugin({
+      mode: 'production',
+      entry: path.join(__dirname, 'fixtures/index.js'),
+      output: {
+        path: OUTPUT_DIR,
+        filename: 'assets/index_bundle.js',
+        publicPath: ''
+      },
+      plugins: [new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
+        filename: 'foo/index.html'
+      })]
+    }, ['<script defer="defer" src="assets/index_bundle.js"'], 'foo/index.html', done);
+  });
+
+  it('allows to set the html-webpack-plugin public path to an empty string', done => {
+    testHtmlPlugin({
+      mode: 'production',
+      entry: path.join(__dirname, 'fixtures/index.js'),
+      output: {
+        path: OUTPUT_DIR,
+        filename: 'assets/index_bundle.js',
+        publicPath: '/'
+      },
+      plugins: [new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
+        filename: 'foo/index.html',
+        publicPath: ''
+      })]
+    }, ['<script defer="defer" src="assets/index_bundle.js"'], 'foo/index.html', done);
+  });
+
   it('handles subdirectories in the webpack output bundles along with a relative path', done => {
     testHtmlPlugin({
       mode: 'production',