diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c9a1b67..a07bbd7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -153,6 +153,8 @@ Examples:
    | total=2 firing=1 pending=0 inactive=1
 
 Flags:
+  -S, --label-key-state string      Use the given AlertRule label to override the exit state for firing alerts.
+                                    If this flag is set the plugin looks for warning/critical/ok in the provided label key
       --exclude-alert stringArray   Alerts to ignore. Can be used multiple times and supports regex.
       --exclude-label stringArray   The label of one or more specific alerts to exclude.
                                     This parameter can be repeated e.g.: '--exclude-label prio=high --exclude-label another=example'
@@ -170,6 +172,11 @@ Flags:
   -P, --problems                    Display only alerts which status is not inactive/OK. Note that in combination with the --name flag this might result in no alerts being displayed
 ```
 
+The `--label-key-state` can be used to override the exit code for firing alerts.
+When the flag is set, the plugin looks for the given label key on the AlertRule and uses
+the specified as label value (`warning/critical/ok`) as exit code.
+An invalid value will result in an UNKNOWN exit code.
+
 #### Checking all defined alerts
 
 ```bash
diff --git a/cmd/alert.go b/cmd/alert.go
index be8466a..f6a68f1 100644
--- a/cmd/alert.go
+++ b/cmd/alert.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ type AlertConfig struct {
 	ExcludeLabels []string
 	IncludeLabels []string
 	ProblemsOnly  bool
+	StateLabelKey string
 	NoAlertsState string
 }
 
@@ -144,8 +145,9 @@ inactive = 0`,
 
 			// Handle Inactive Alerts
 			if len(rl.AlertingRule.Alerts) == 0 {
-				// Counting states for perfdata
-				switch rl.GetStatus() {
+				// Counting states for perfdata. We don't use the state-label override here
+				// to have the acutal count from Prometheus
+				switch rl.GetStatus("") {
 				case 0:
 					counterInactive++
 				case 1:
@@ -156,7 +158,7 @@ inactive = 0`,
 
 				sc := result.NewPartialResult()
 
-				_ = sc.SetState(rl.GetStatus())
+				_ = sc.SetState(rl.GetStatus(cliAlertConfig.StateLabelKey))
 				sc.Output = rl.GetOutput()
 				overall.AddSubcheck(sc)
 			}
@@ -165,8 +167,9 @@ inactive = 0`,
 			if len(rl.AlertingRule.Alerts) > 0 {
 				// Handle Pending or Firing Alerts
 				for _, alert := range rl.AlertingRule.Alerts {
-					// Counting states for perfdata
-					switch rl.GetStatus() {
+					// Counting states for perfdata. We don't use the state-label override here
+					// to have the acutal count from Prometheus
+					switch rl.GetStatus("") {
 					case 0:
 						counterInactive++
 					case 1:
@@ -177,7 +180,7 @@ inactive = 0`,
 
 					sc := result.NewPartialResult()
 
-					_ = sc.SetState(rl.GetStatus())
+					_ = sc.SetState(rl.GetStatus(cliAlertConfig.StateLabelKey))
 					// Set the alert in the internal Type to generate the output
 					rl.Alert = alert
 					sc.Output = rl.GetOutput()
@@ -248,6 +251,10 @@ func init() {
 
 	fs.BoolVarP(&cliAlertConfig.ProblemsOnly, "problems", "P", false,
 		"Display only alerts which status is not inactive/OK. Note that in combination with the --name flag this might result in no alerts being displayed")
+
+	fs.StringVarP(&cliAlertConfig.StateLabelKey, "label-key-state", "S", "",
+		"Use the given AlertRule label to override the exit state for firing alerts."+
+			"\nIf this flag is set the plugin looks for warning/critical/ok in the provided label key")
 }
 
 // Function to convert state to integer.
diff --git a/cmd/alert_test.go b/cmd/alert_test.go
index 2a5124c..7565d8a 100644
--- a/cmd/alert_test.go
+++ b/cmd/alert_test.go
@@ -304,6 +304,22 @@ exit status 2
 			args:     []string{"run", "../main.go", "alert", "--exclude-label", "team=database", "--exclude-label", "severity=critical"},
 			expected: "[OK] - 0 Alerts: 0 Firing - 0 Pending - 0 Inactive\n\\_ [OK] No alerts retrieved\n|total=0 firing=0 pending=0 inactive=0\n\n",
 		},
+		{
+			name: "alert-state-label",
+			server: httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+				w.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
+				w.Write(loadTestdata(alertTestDataSet1))
+			})),
+			args: []string{"run", "../main.go", "alert", "--label-key-state=icinga"},
+			expected: `[WARNING] - 3 Alerts: 1 Firing - 1 Pending - 1 Inactive
+\_ [OK] [HostOutOfMemory] is inactive
+\_ [WARNING] [SqlAccessDeniedRate] - Job: [mysql] on Instance: [localhost] is pending - value: 0.40 - {"alertname":"SqlAccessDeniedRate","instance":"localhost","job":"mysql","severity":"warning"}
+\_ [OK] [BlackboxTLS] - Job: [blackbox] on Instance: [https://localhost:443] is firing - value: -6065338.00 - {"alertname":"TLS","instance":"https://localhost:443","job":"blackbox","severity":"critical"}
+|total=3 firing=1 pending=1 inactive=1
+
+exit status 1
+`,
+		},
 	}
 
 	for _, test := range tests {
diff --git a/internal/alert/alert.go b/internal/alert/alert.go
index 9733a04..841ab37 100644
--- a/internal/alert/alert.go
+++ b/internal/alert/alert.go
@@ -58,8 +58,10 @@ func FlattenRules(groups []v1.RuleGroup, wantedGroups []string) []Rule {
 	return rules
 }
 
-func (a *Rule) GetStatus() (status int) {
-	switch a.AlertingRule.State {
+func (a *Rule) GetStatus(labelKey string) (status int) {
+	state := a.AlertingRule.State
+
+	switch state {
 	case string(v1.AlertStateFiring):
 		status = check.Critical
 	case string(v1.AlertStatePending):
@@ -70,6 +72,26 @@ func (a *Rule) GetStatus() (status int) {
 		status = check.Unknown
 	}
 
+	if state == string(v1.AlertStateFiring) && labelKey != "" {
+		stateLabel, ok := a.AlertingRule.Labels[model.LabelName(labelKey)]
+		// If there is no such label key, we're done
+		if !ok {
+			return status
+		}
+
+		lb := strings.ToLower(string(stateLabel))
+		switch lb {
+		case "warning":
+			status = check.Warning
+		case "critical":
+			status = check.Critical
+		case "ok":
+			status = check.OK
+		default:
+			status = check.Unknown
+		}
+	}
+
 	return status
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/alert/alert_test.go b/internal/alert/alert_test.go
index 392d1e6..0d3ca5b 100644
--- a/internal/alert/alert_test.go
+++ b/internal/alert/alert_test.go
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ import (
 )
 
 func TestGetStatus(t *testing.T) {
-
 	testTime := time.Now()
 
 	ar := v1.AlertingRule{
@@ -49,19 +48,67 @@ func TestGetStatus(t *testing.T) {
 		Alert:        ar.Alerts[0],
 	}
 
-	actual := r.GetStatus()
+	actual := r.GetStatus("")
 	if actual != check.Critical {
 		t.Error("\nActual: ", actual, "\nExpected: ", check.Critical)
 	}
 
 	r.AlertingRule.State = "pending"
-	actual = r.GetStatus()
+	actual = r.GetStatus("")
 	if actual != check.Warning {
 		t.Error("\nActual: ", actual, "\nExpected: ", check.Warning)
 	}
 
 }
 
+func TestGetStatus_WithLabel(t *testing.T) {
+	ar := v1.AlertingRule{
+		Alerts: []*v1.Alert{
+			{
+				Annotations: model.LabelSet{
+					"summary": "High request latency",
+				},
+				Labels: model.LabelSet{
+					"alertname": "HighRequestLatency",
+					"severity":  "page",
+				},
+				State: v1.AlertStateFiring,
+				Value: "1e+00",
+			},
+		},
+		Annotations: model.LabelSet{
+			"summary": "High request latency",
+		},
+		Labels: model.LabelSet{
+			"severity":    "page",
+			"icingaState": "OK",
+		},
+		Duration:       600,
+		Health:         v1.RuleHealthGood,
+		Name:           "HighRequestLatency",
+		Query:          "job:request_latency_seconds:mean5m{job=\"myjob\"} > 0.5",
+		LastError:      "",
+		EvaluationTime: 0.5,
+		State:          "firing",
+	}
+
+	r := Rule{
+		AlertingRule: ar,
+		Alert:        ar.Alerts[0],
+	}
+
+	actual := r.GetStatus("icingaState")
+	if actual != check.OK {
+		t.Error("\nActual: ", actual, "\nExpected: ", check.Critical)
+	}
+
+	r.AlertingRule.State = "pending"
+	actual = r.GetStatus("icingaState")
+	if actual != check.Warning {
+		t.Error("\nActual: ", actual, "\nExpected: ", check.Warning)
+	}
+}
+
 func TestGetOutput(t *testing.T) {
 
 	testTime := time.Now()
diff --git a/testdata/alertmanager/alert.rules b/testdata/alertmanager/alert.rules
index 933df38..d2f71d0 100644
--- a/testdata/alertmanager/alert.rules
+++ b/testdata/alertmanager/alert.rules
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ groups:
     for: 0m
     labels:
       severity: critical
+      icingaState: warning
     annotations:
       summary: Prometheus target missing (instance {{ $labels.instance }})
       description: "A Prometheus target has disappeared. An exporter might be crashed.\n  VALUE = {{ $value }}\n  LABELS = {{ $labels }}"
@@ -16,6 +17,7 @@ groups:
     for: 0m
     labels:
       severity: low
+      icingaState: warning
     annotations:
       summary: Prometheus AlertManager job missing (instance {{ $labels.instance }})
       description: "A Prometheus AlertManager job has disappeared\n  VALUE = {{ $value }}\n  LABELS = {{ $labels }}"
diff --git a/testdata/unittest/alertDataset1.json b/testdata/unittest/alertDataset1.json
index ef5ebc5..54a346b 100644
--- a/testdata/unittest/alertDataset1.json
+++ b/testdata/unittest/alertDataset1.json
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@
             "duration": 0,
             "labels": {
               "severity": "critical",
+              "icinga": "ok",
               "team": "network"
             },
             "annotations": {