diff --git a/repo2docker/docker.py b/repo2docker/docker.py
index c1f3b418..05f952c7 100644
--- a/repo2docker/docker.py
+++ b/repo2docker/docker.py
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ class DockerEngine(ContainerEngine):
         dockerfile="",
         fileobj=None,
         path="",
+        labels=None,
         **kwargs,
     ):
         return self._apiclient.build(
@@ -87,6 +88,7 @@ class DockerEngine(ContainerEngine):
             dockerfile=dockerfile,
             fileobj=fileobj,
             path=path,
+            labels=labels,
             **kwargs,
         )
 
diff --git a/repo2docker/engine.py b/repo2docker/engine.py
index 4b2a6201..9b5e92eb 100644
--- a/repo2docker/engine.py
+++ b/repo2docker/engine.py
@@ -176,6 +176,7 @@ class ContainerEngine(LoggingConfigurable):
         dockerfile="",
         fileobj=None,
         path="",
+        labels=None,
         **kwargs,
     ):
         """
@@ -204,6 +205,8 @@ class ContainerEngine(LoggingConfigurable):
             A tar file-like object containing the build context
         path : str
             path to the Dockerfile
+        labels : dict
+            Dictionary of labels to set on the image
 
         Returns
         -------