diff --git a/docs/changes.txt b/docs/changes.txt
index 14a5e37a96..b83555f101 100644
--- a/docs/changes.txt
+++ b/docs/changes.txt
@@ -102,6 +102,10 @@ wxGTK:
 
 - Don't crash if command line is not valid UTF-8 (Unicode build only)
 
+wxUniv:
+
+- It is now possible to set background colour of wxStaticText
+
 
 2.8.0
 -----
diff --git a/src/univ/stattext.cpp b/src/univ/stattext.cpp
index 509a5d6dde..83ebf31eaf 100644
--- a/src/univ/stattext.cpp
+++ b/src/univ/stattext.cpp
@@ -88,6 +88,14 @@ wxSize wxStaticText::DoGetBestClientSize() const
 
 void wxStaticText::DoDraw(wxControlRenderer *renderer)
 {
+    if ( UseBgCol() )
+    {
+        wxDC& dc = renderer->GetDC();
+        dc.SetBrush(GetBackgroundColour());
+        dc.SetPen(*wxTRANSPARENT_PEN);
+        dc.DrawRectangle(renderer->GetRect());
+    }
+
     renderer->DrawLabel();
 }