diff --git a/msgspec/_core.c b/msgspec/_core.c
index bfb73680..83de473b 100644
--- a/msgspec/_core.c
+++ b/msgspec/_core.c
@@ -22102,7 +22102,7 @@ PyInit__core(void)
     st->DecodeError = PyErr_NewExceptionWithDoc(
         "msgspec.DecodeError",
         "An error occurred while decoding an object",
-        st->MsgspecError, NULL
+        PyTuple_Pack(2, st->MsgspecError, PyExc_ValueError), NULL
     );
     if (st->DecodeError == NULL)
         return NULL;
diff --git a/tests/test_common.py b/tests/test_common.py
index 38898be3..2ca9f968 100644
--- a/tests/test_common.py
+++ b/tests/test_common.py
@@ -291,6 +291,14 @@ class Custom(metaclass=Metaclass):
         with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="Oh no!"):
             dec.decode(msg)
 
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("err_cls", [msgspec.DecodeError, msgspec.ValidationError])
+    def test_decode_errors_subclass_of_value_error(self, err_cls):
+        assert issubclass(err_cls, ValueError)
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("err_cls", [msgspec.EncodeError, msgspec.MsgspecError])
+    def test_other_errors_not_subclass_of_value_error(self, err_cls):
+        assert not issubclass(err_cls, ValueError)
+
 
 @pytest.mark.skipif(
     PY312,