diff --git a/infer/src/backend/config.ml b/infer/src/backend/config.ml
index dcb586bd5..77a3602aa 100644
--- a/infer/src/backend/config.ml
+++ b/infer/src/backend/config.ml
@@ -820,9 +820,8 @@ and latex =
     ~meta:"file" "Print latex report to a file"
 
 and load_average =
-  CLOpt.mk_option ~long:"load-average" ~short:"l" ~f:(fun s -> Some (float_of_string s))
-    ~meta:"float"
-    ~exes:CLOpt.[Toplevel]
+  CLOpt.mk_float ~long:"load-average" ~short:"l" ~default:(float_of_int ncpu)
+    ~exes:CLOpt.[Toplevel] ~meta:"float"
     "Do not start new parallel jobs if the load average is greater than that specified (Buck and \
      make only)"
 
diff --git a/infer/src/backend/config.mli b/infer/src/backend/config.mli
index c96489106..0ee08dcaf 100644
--- a/infer/src/backend/config.mli
+++ b/infer/src/backend/config.mli
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ val infer_py_argparse_error_exit_code : int
 val initial_analysis_time : float
 val ivar_attributes : string
 val lint_issues_dir_name : string
-val load_average : float option
+val load_average : float
 val log_analysis_crash : string
 val log_analysis_file : string
 val log_analysis_procedure : string
diff --git a/infer/src/backend/infer.ml b/infer/src/backend/infer.ml
index 687829e4a..2ef8ecb7b 100644
--- a/infer/src/backend/infer.ml
+++ b/infer/src/backend/infer.ml
@@ -97,8 +97,7 @@ let () =
       (match Config.infer_cache with None -> [] | Some s ->
         ["--infer_cache"; s]) @
       "-j" :: (string_of_int Config.jobs) ::
-      (match Config.load_average with None -> [] | Some f ->
-        ["-l"; string_of_float f]) @
+      "-l" :: (string_of_float Config.load_average) ::
       (if not Config.pmd_xml then [] else
          ["--pmd-xml"]) @
       (if not Config.reactive_mode then [] else