diff --git a/src/lib/sort/_sort-theme.scss b/src/lib/sort/_sort-theme.scss
index 9aaf2958b28a..667100201c09 100644
--- a/src/lib/sort/_sort-theme.scss
+++ b/src/lib/sort/_sort-theme.scss
@@ -1,4 +1,17 @@
-// Empty mixins to be consistent with all other components.
-@mixin mat-sort-theme($theme) { }
+@mixin mat-sort-theme($theme) {
+  $background: map-get($theme, background);
+  $foreground: map-get($theme, foreground);
+
+  .mat-sort-header-arrow {
+    // Because the arrow is made up of multiple elements that are stacked on top of each other,
+    // we can't use the semi-trasparent color from the theme directly. We convert it into a solid
+    // color by taking the opacity from the rgba value and using the value to determine the
+    // percentage of the background to put into foreground when mixing the colors together.
+    $table-background: mat-color($background, 'card');
+    $text-color: mat-color($foreground, secondary-text);
+    $text-opacity: opacity($text-color);
+    color: mix($table-background, rgba($text-color, 1), (1 - $text-opacity) * 100%);
+  }
+}
 
 @mixin mat-sort-typography($config) { }