diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 33937681837..c26bfe1da1b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.htm
 - `go.opentelemetry.io/otel/exporters/otlp/otlpmetric/otlpmetricgrpc` does no longer depend on `go.opentelemetry.io/otel/exporters/otlp/otlpmetric`. (#4660)
 - `go.opentelemetry.io/otel/exporters/otlp/otlpmetric/otlpmetrichttp` does no longer depend on `go.opentelemetry.io/otel/exporters/otlp/otlpmetric`. (#4660)
 
+### Fixed
+
+- `baggage.NewMember` and `baggage.parseMember` use `url.PathUnescape` rather than `url.QueryUnescape`, preventing mangling of characters that are valid as baggage values but not query strings. (#3601)
+
 ## [1.19.0/0.42.0/0.0.7] 2023-09-28
 
 This release contains the first stable release of the OpenTelemetry Go [metric SDK].
diff --git a/baggage/baggage.go b/baggage/baggage.go
index 9e6b3b7b52a..84532cb1da3 100644
--- a/baggage/baggage.go
+++ b/baggage/baggage.go
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ func NewMember(key, value string, props ...Property) (Member, error) {
 	if err := m.validate(); err != nil {
 		return newInvalidMember(), err
 	}
-	decodedValue, err := url.QueryUnescape(value)
+	decodedValue, err := url.PathUnescape(value)
 	if err != nil {
 		return newInvalidMember(), fmt.Errorf("%w: %q", errInvalidValue, value)
 	}
@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ func parseMember(member string) (Member, error) {
 	// when converting the header into a data structure."
 	key = strings.TrimSpace(k)
 	var err error
-	value, err = url.QueryUnescape(strings.TrimSpace(v))
+	value, err = url.PathUnescape(strings.TrimSpace(v))
 	if err != nil {
 		return newInvalidMember(), fmt.Errorf("%w: %q", err, value)
 	}
diff --git a/baggage/baggage_test.go b/baggage/baggage_test.go
index 2b98beace10..4bac6707ea0 100644
--- a/baggage/baggage_test.go
+++ b/baggage/baggage_test.go
@@ -275,6 +275,48 @@ func TestBaggageParse(t *testing.T) {
 				"foo": {Value: "1"},
 			},
 		},
+		{
+			name: "single member no properties plus",
+			in:   "foo=1+1",
+			want: baggage.List{
+				"foo": {Value: "1+1"},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "single member no properties plus encoded",
+			in:   "foo=1%2B1",
+			want: baggage.List{
+				"foo": {Value: "1+1"},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "single member no properties slash",
+			in:   "foo=1/1",
+			want: baggage.List{
+				"foo": {Value: "1/1"},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "single member no properties slash encoded",
+			in:   "foo=1%2F1",
+			want: baggage.List{
+				"foo": {Value: "1/1"},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "single member no properties equals",
+			in:   "foo=1=1",
+			want: baggage.List{
+				"foo": {Value: "1=1"},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "single member no properties equals encoded",
+			in:   "foo=1%3D1",
+			want: baggage.List{
+				"foo": {Value: "1=1"},
+			},
+		},
 		{
 			name: "single member with spaces",
 			in:   " foo \t= 1\t\t ",
@@ -440,6 +482,13 @@ func TestBaggageString(t *testing.T) {
 				"foo": {Value: "1=1"},
 			},
 		},
+		{
+			name: "plus",
+			out:  "foo=1%2B1",
+			baggage: baggage.List{
+				"foo": {Value: "1+1"},
+			},
+		},
 		{
 			name: "single member empty value with properties",
 			out:  "foo=;red;state=on",