diff --git a/AUTHORS.txt b/AUTHORS.txt
index 5a4b804a8..f68f3304a 100644
--- a/AUTHORS.txt
+++ b/AUTHORS.txt
@@ -219,4 +219,5 @@ S. Andrew Sheppard <andrew@wq.io>
 Roman Reiß <me@silverwind.io>
 Benjy Cui <benjytrys@gmail.com>
 Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas <rr.rosas@gmail.com>
+John Hoven <hovenj@gmail.com>
 
diff --git a/src/attributes/val.js b/src/attributes/val.js
index 6d6b8ea7c..42ef32343 100644
--- a/src/attributes/val.js
+++ b/src/attributes/val.js
@@ -71,6 +71,16 @@ jQuery.fn.extend({
 
 jQuery.extend({
 	valHooks: {
+		option: {
+			get: function( elem ) {
+				var val = jQuery.find.attr( elem, "value" );
+				return val != null ?
+					val :
+					// Support: IE10-11+
+					// option.text throws exceptions (#14686, #14858)
+					jQuery.trim( jQuery.text( elem ) );
+			}
+		},
 		select: {
 			get: function( elem ) {
 				var value, option,
diff --git a/test/unit/attributes.js b/test/unit/attributes.js
index 4a9bb677e..7839abd85 100644
--- a/test/unit/attributes.js
+++ b/test/unit/attributes.js
@@ -1459,3 +1459,16 @@ test( "should not throw at $(option).val() (#14686)", 1, function() {
 		ok( false );
 	}
 });
+
+test( "Insignificant white space returned for $(option).val() (#14858)", function() {
+	expect ( 3 );
+
+	var val = jQuery( "<option></option>" ).val();
+	equal( val.length, 0, "Empty option should have no value" );
+
+	val = jQuery( "<option>  </option>" ).val();
+	equal( val.length, 0, "insignificant white-space returned for value" );
+
+	val = jQuery( "<option>  test  </option>" ).val();
+	equal( val.length, 4, "insignificant white-space returned for value" );
+});