diff --git a/src/webob/request.py b/src/webob/request.py
index ee52a7d1..84c3349b 100644
--- a/src/webob/request.py
+++ b/src/webob/request.py
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ def encget(self, key, default=NoDefault, encattr=None):
             return val
         encoding = getattr(self, encattr)
 
-        if encoding in _LATIN_ENCODINGS:  # shortcut
+        if encoding in _LATIN_ENCODINGS or encoding == 'UTF-8':  # shortcut
             return val
 
         return bytes_(val, "latin-1").decode(encoding)