diff --git a/lib/simple_form/tags.rb b/lib/simple_form/tags.rb
index cc0e08f1..fde30313 100644
--- a/lib/simple_form/tags.rb
+++ b/lib/simple_form/tags.rb
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ module SimpleForm
             label_options = {}
             add_default_name_and_id_for_value(value, label_options)
             label_options['for'] = label_options.delete('id')
-            label_options['class'] = @options.fetch(:item_label_class, '')
+            label_options['class'] = @options[:item_label_class]
             rendered_item = content_tag(:label, rendered_item, label_options)
           end