diff --git a/.changeset/slimy-swans-repeat.md b/.changeset/slimy-swans-repeat.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ca5c5ec3fd1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/slimy-swans-repeat.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"effect": patch
+---
+
+Fix use of Schema.NonEmptyArrayEnsure with strings
diff --git a/packages/effect/src/Schema.ts b/packages/effect/src/Schema.ts
index 08719a018d5..fb52d76177e 100644
--- a/packages/effect/src/Schema.ts
+++ b/packages/effect/src/Schema.ts
@@ -1664,7 +1664,7 @@ export interface NonEmptyArrayEnsure<Value extends Schema.Any>
 export function NonEmptyArrayEnsure<Value extends Schema.Any>(value: Value): NonEmptyArrayEnsure<Value> {
   return transform(Union(value, NonEmptyArray(value)), NonEmptyArray(typeSchema(asSchema(value))), {
     strict: true,
-    decode: (i) => array_.isNonEmptyReadonlyArray(i) ? i : array_.of(i),
+    decode: (i) => Array.isArray(i) && array_.isNonEmptyReadonlyArray(i) ? i : (array_.of(i) as never),
     encode: (a) => a.length === 1 ? a[0] : a
   })
 }
diff --git a/packages/effect/test/Schema/Schema/NonEmptyArrayEnsure.test.ts b/packages/effect/test/Schema/Schema/NonEmptyArrayEnsure.test.ts
index ec26ef4e68c..b5cb27f0630 100644
--- a/packages/effect/test/Schema/Schema/NonEmptyArrayEnsure.test.ts
+++ b/packages/effect/test/Schema/Schema/NonEmptyArrayEnsure.test.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,9 @@ import * as Util from "../TestUtils.js"
 describe("NonEmptyArrayEnsure", () => {
   it("decode non-array", async () => {
     const schema = S.NonEmptyArrayEnsure(S.NumberFromString)
+    const schema2 = S.NonEmptyArrayEnsure(S.String)
     await Util.assertions.decoding.succeed(schema, "123", [123])
+    await Util.assertions.decoding.succeed(schema2, "foo", ["foo"])
     await Util.assertions.decoding.fail(
       schema,
       null,
@@ -56,6 +58,11 @@ describe("NonEmptyArrayEnsure", () => {
     )
   })
 
+  it("decode array value", async () => {
+    const schema = S.NonEmptyArrayEnsure(S.Array(S.String))
+    await Util.assertions.decoding.succeed(schema, [], [[]])
+  })
+
   it("encode", async () => {
     const schema = S.NonEmptyArrayEnsure(S.NumberFromString)
     await Util.assertions.encoding.succeed(schema, [123], "123")