diff --git a/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py b/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py
index 45cb226..2b99b38 100644
--- a/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py
+++ b/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
+import codecs
 import logging
 import sys
 from io import BytesIO
@@ -144,6 +145,14 @@ class WSGIRequest(http.HttpRequest):
         self.META['PATH_INFO'] = path_info
         self.META['SCRIPT_NAME'] = script_name
         self.method = environ['REQUEST_METHOD'].upper()
+        _, content_params = self._parse_content_type(self.META.get('CONTENT_TYPE', ''))
+        if 'charset' in content_params:
+            try:
+                codecs.lookup(content_params['charset'])
+            except LookupError:
+                pass
+            else:
+                self.encoding = content_params['charset']
         self._post_parse_error = False
         try:
             content_length = int(self.environ.get('CONTENT_LENGTH'))
@@ -155,6 +164,18 @@ class WSGIRequest(http.HttpRequest):
     def _is_secure(self):
         return 'wsgi.url_scheme' in self.environ and self.environ['wsgi.url_scheme'] == 'https'
 
+    def _parse_content_type(self, ctype):
+        """
+        Example input: "text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1"
+        Return: ('text/plain', {'charset': 'iso-8859-1'})
+        """
+        content_type, _, params = ctype.partition(';')
+        content_params = {}
+        for parameter in params.split(';'):
+            k, _, v = parameter.strip().partition('=')
+            content_params[k] = v
+        return content_type, content_params
+
     def _get_request(self):
         if not hasattr(self, '_request'):
             self._request = datastructures.MergeDict(self.POST, self.GET)
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/requests/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/requests/tests.py
index 6522620..eaf25ea 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/requests/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/requests/tests.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 import time
@@ -352,6 +353,20 @@ class RequestsTests(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertRaises(Exception, lambda: request.body)
         self.assertEqual(request.POST, {})
 
+    def test_alternate_charset_POST(self):
+        """
+        Test a POST with non-utf-8 payload encoding.
+        """
+        from django.utils.http import urllib_parse
+        payload = FakePayload(urllib_parse.urlencode({'key': 'España'.encode('latin-1')}))
+        request = WSGIRequest({
+            'REQUEST_METHOD': 'POST',
+            'CONTENT_LENGTH': len(payload),
+            'CONTENT_TYPE': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=iso-8859-1',
+            'wsgi.input': payload,
+        })
+        self.assertEqual(request.POST, {'key': ['España']})
+
     def test_body_after_POST_multipart(self):
         """
         Reading body after parsing multipart is not allowed