diff --git a/res/composer-schema.json b/res/composer-schema.json
index 962398447..746e6ca76 100644
--- a/res/composer-schema.json
+++ b/res/composer-schema.json
@@ -180,6 +180,10 @@
                     "type": "string",
                     "description": "Optional string to be used as a suffix for the generated Composer autoloader. When null a random one will be generated."
                 },
+                "autoloader-optimize-always": {
+                    "type": "boolean",
+                    "description": "Always optimize when dumping the autoloader"
+                },
                 "prepend-autoloader": {
                     "type": "boolean",
                     "description": "If false, the composer autoloader will not be prepended to existing autoloaders, defaults to true."
diff --git a/src/Composer/Command/ConfigCommand.php b/src/Composer/Command/ConfigCommand.php
index 89aa072ba..96c8b3ad6 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Command/ConfigCommand.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Command/ConfigCommand.php
@@ -283,6 +283,7 @@ EOT
                 }
             ),
             'autoloader-suffix' => array('is_string', function ($val) { return $val === 'null' ? null : $val; }),
+            'autoloader-optimize-always' => array($booleanValidator, $booleanNormalizer),
             'prepend-autoloader' => array($booleanValidator, $booleanNormalizer),
         );
         $multiConfigValues = array(
diff --git a/src/Composer/Command/DumpAutoloadCommand.php b/src/Composer/Command/DumpAutoloadCommand.php
index 23ba53167..3902828b0 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Command/DumpAutoloadCommand.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Command/DumpAutoloadCommand.php
@@ -41,12 +41,6 @@ EOT
 
     protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
     {
-        if ($input->getOption('optimize')) {
-            $output->writeln('<info>Generating optimized autoload files</info>');
-        } else {
-            $output->writeln('<info>Generating autoload files</info>');
-        }
-
         $composer = $this->getComposer();
 
         $commandEvent = new CommandEvent(PluginEvents::COMMAND, 'dump-autoload', $input, $output);
@@ -57,6 +51,14 @@ EOT
         $package = $composer->getPackage();
         $config = $composer->getConfig();
 
-        $composer->getAutoloadGenerator()->dump($config, $localRepo, $package, $installationManager, 'composer', $input->getOption('optimize'));
+        $optimize = $input->getOption('optimize') || $config->get('autoloader-optimize-always');
+
+        if ($optimize) {
+            $output->writeln('<info>Generating optimized autoload files</info>');
+        } else {
+            $output->writeln('<info>Generating autoload files</info>');
+        }
+
+        $composer->getAutoloadGenerator()->dump($config, $localRepo, $package, $installationManager, 'composer', $optimize);
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/Composer/Config.php b/src/Composer/Config.php
index c54bc498c..9e695094e 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Config.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Config.php
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ class Config
         'cache-files-maxsize' => '300MiB',
         'discard-changes' => false,
         'autoloader-suffix' => null,
+        'autoloader-optimize-always' => false,
         'prepend-autoloader' => true,
         'github-domains' => array('github.com'),
     );