diff --git a/salt/config.py b/salt/config.py
index 31776aaa1ba4..3b313ab1ca49 100644
--- a/salt/config.py
+++ b/salt/config.py
@@ -189,6 +189,7 @@
     'random_master': bool,
     'syndic_event_forward_timeout': float,
     'syndic_max_event_process_time': float,
+    'salt_fails_if_highstate_fails': bool,
 }
 
 # default configurations
@@ -401,6 +402,7 @@
     'gather_job_timeout': 2,
     'syndic_event_forward_timeout': 0.5,
     'syndic_max_event_process_time': 0.5,
+    'salt_fails_if_highstate_fails': False
 }
 
 # ----- Salt Cloud Configuration Defaults ----------------------------------->
diff --git a/salt/output/__init__.py b/salt/output/__init__.py
index 1d57ba5f4ae3..8b78ae751676 100644
--- a/salt/output/__init__.py
+++ b/salt/output/__init__.py
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
 import salt.loader
 import salt.utils
 
+from salt.exceptions import SaltSystemExit
+
 
 log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -39,6 +41,7 @@ def display_output(data, out, opts=None):
         display_data = get_printout('nested', opts)(data).rstrip()
 
     output_filename = opts.get('output_file', None)
+    salt_fails_if_highstate_fails = opts.get('salt_fails_if_highstate_fails', False)
     try:
         if output_filename is not None:
             with salt.utils.fopen(output_filename, 'a') as ofh:
@@ -47,11 +50,21 @@ def display_output(data, out, opts=None):
             return
         if display_data:
             print(display_data)
+        if salt_fails_if_highstate_fails:
+            if not get_highstate_success(highstate_data=data):
+                raise SaltSystemExit(code=1)
+
     except IOError as exc:
         # Only raise if it's NOT a broken pipe
         if exc.errno != errno.EPIPE:
             raise exc
 
+def get_highstate_success(highstate_data):
+    for i in highstate_data.keys():
+         for j in highstate_data[i].keys():
+            if not highstate_data[i][j]['result']:
+                return False
+    return True
 
 def get_printout(out, opts=None, **kwargs):
     '''