diff --git a/src/PooledArrays.jl b/src/PooledArrays.jl
index 30f1753..e3f0ddf 100644
--- a/src/PooledArrays.jl
+++ b/src/PooledArrays.jl
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ PooledArray(d::PooledArray) = copy(d)
 
 function _label(xs::AbstractArray,
                 ::Type{T}=eltype(xs),
-                ::Type{I}=UInt8,
+                ::Type{I}=DEFAULT_POOLED_REF_TYPE,
                 start = 1,
                 labels = Array{I}(undef, size(xs)),
                 invpool::Dict{T,I} = Dict{T, I}(),
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index f455eec..af967b5 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -69,8 +69,10 @@ using DataAPI: refarray, refvalue, refpool
 
     @test PooledArray{Union{Int,Missing}}([1, 2]) isa PooledArray{Union{Int,Missing}}
 
-    @test eltype(PooledArray(rand(128)).refs) == UInt8
-    @test eltype(PooledArray(rand(300)).refs) == UInt16
+    @test eltype(PooledArray(rand(128)).refs) == UInt32
+    @test eltype(PooledArray(rand(300)).refs) == UInt32
+    @test eltype(PooledArray(rand(128), UInt8).refs) == UInt8
+    @test eltype(PooledArray(rand(300), UInt16).refs) == UInt16
     @test PooledVector == PooledArray{T, R, 1} where {T, R}
     @test PooledMatrix == PooledArray{T, R, 2} where {T, R}