diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 216e061..a2813e5 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: shiny.emptystate
 Title: Empty State Components for 'Shiny'
-Version: 0.1.0
+Version: 0.1.0.9000
 Authors@R:
     c(
         person("Ryszard", "Szymański", role = c("aut", "cre"), email = "opensource+ryszard@appsilon.com"),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index c3c93d9..3c59d5d 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+# shiny.emptystate (development version)
+
+- `EmptyStateManager` has now an additional `z_index` argument, to set 
+[the stack level](https://drafts.csswg.org/css2/#z-index) for the empty state container. #52
+
 # [shiny.emptystate 0.1.0](https://github.com/Appsilon/shiny.emptystate/releases/tag/v0.1.0)
 
 First release.
diff --git a/R/empty_state.R b/R/empty_state.R
index 898959d..afe1725 100644
--- a/R/empty_state.R
+++ b/R/empty_state.R
@@ -98,11 +98,18 @@ EmptyStateManager <- R6Class( # nolint: object_name_linter
     #' Defaults to `default_empty_state_component()`
     #' @param color Background color of empty state content.
     #' Defaults to `NULL`
+    #' @param z_index The stack level for the empty state container.
+    #' Defaults to `9999`
     #' @return A new `EmptyStateManager` R6 class object.
-    initialize = function(id, html_content = default_empty_state_component(), color = NULL) {
+    initialize = function(
+        id,
+        html_content = default_empty_state_component(),
+        color = NULL,
+        z_index = 9999) {
       private$.id <- id
       private$.html_content <- private$process_html(html_content)
       private$.color <- color
+      private$.z_index <- z_index
     },
 
     #' @description
@@ -152,6 +159,7 @@ EmptyStateManager <- R6Class( # nolint: object_name_linter
     .id = NA,
     .html_content = NA,
     .color = NA,
+    .z_index = NA,
     empty_state_shown = FALSE,
     get_session = function() {
       getDefaultReactiveDomain()
@@ -160,7 +168,8 @@ EmptyStateManager <- R6Class( # nolint: object_name_linter
       list(
         id = private$.id,
         html_content = private$.html_content,
-        color = private$.color
+        color = private$.color,
+        z_index = private$.z_index
       )
     },
     create_hide_message = function() {
diff --git a/inst/emptystate.css b/inst/emptystate.css
index 7482a54..7512af4 100644
--- a/inst/emptystate.css
+++ b/inst/emptystate.css
@@ -5,10 +5,6 @@
   height: 100%;
 }
 
-.empty-state-container {
-  z-index: 9999;
-}
-
 .empty-state-content .empty-state-component {
   display: flex;
   flex-direction: column;
diff --git a/inst/emptystate.js b/inst/emptystate.js
index 92a36d6..ac19717 100644
--- a/inst/emptystate.js
+++ b/inst/emptystate.js
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ function createEmptyStateContentElement(htmlContent) {
   return emptyStateContentElement;
 }
 
-function createEmptyStateContainer(elementToReplace) {
+function createEmptyStateContainer(elementToReplace, zIndex) {
   const emptyStateContainer = document.createElement("div");
 
   emptyStateContainer.style.position = "absolute";
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ function createEmptyStateContainer(elementToReplace) {
   emptyStateContainer.style.width = elementToReplace.offsetWidth + "px";
   emptyStateContainer.style.left = elementToReplace.offsetLeft + "px";
   emptyStateContainer.style.top = elementToReplace.offsetTop + "px";
+  emptyStateContainer.style.zIndex = zIndex;
 
   emptyStateContainer.classList.add("empty-state-container");
 
@@ -48,13 +49,14 @@ function findElementById(elementId) {
 function showEmptyState(message) {
   const elementId = message.id;
   const emptyStateContent = message.html_content;
+  const zIndex = message.z_index
 
   const white = "#FFFFFF"
   const backgroundColor = (message.color === null) ? white : message.color;
 
   elementToReplace = findElementById(elementId);
 
-  const emptyStateContainer = createEmptyStateContainer(elementToReplace);
+  const emptyStateContainer = createEmptyStateContainer(elementToReplace, zIndex);
   const emptyStateContentElement = createEmptyStateContentElement(emptyStateContent);
   emptyStateContainer.appendChild(emptyStateContentElement);
 
diff --git a/man/EmptyStateManager.Rd b/man/EmptyStateManager.Rd
index c205efd..4983c6b 100644
--- a/man/EmptyStateManager.Rd
+++ b/man/EmptyStateManager.Rd
@@ -76,7 +76,8 @@ Creates a new empty state manager object.
 \if{html}{\out{<div class="r">}}\preformatted{EmptyStateManager$new(
   id,
   html_content = default_empty_state_component(),
-  color = NULL
+  color = NULL,
+  z_index = 9999
 )}\if{html}{\out{</div>}}
 }
 
@@ -90,6 +91,9 @@ Defaults to \code{default_empty_state_component()}}
 
 \item{\code{color}}{Background color of empty state content.
 Defaults to \code{NULL}}
+
+\item{\code{z_index}}{The stack level for the empty state container.
+Defaults to \code{9999}}
 }
 \if{html}{\out{</div>}}
 }
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-empty_state.R b/tests/testthat/test-empty_state.R
index aa25bdd..db05a5a 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-empty_state.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-empty_state.R
@@ -59,6 +59,66 @@ describe("EmptyStateManager", {
     expect_null(app$get_html(selector = ".empty-state-content"))
     app$stop()
   })
+
+  it("uses a default z-index for its container when not specified", {
+    skip_on_cran()
+    app <- shinytest2::AppDriver$new(test_app(), name = "test")
+    app$click("show")
+
+    js_get_z_index <- "function getZIndex() {
+        const container = document.querySelector('.empty-state-container');
+      return window.getComputedStyle(container).zIndex;
+      };
+
+      getZIndex();"
+
+    expect_equal(app$get_js(js_get_z_index), "9999")
+    app$stop()
+  })
+
+  it("can use an arbitrary z-index value for its container", {
+    skip_on_cran()
+
+    test_app <- function() {
+      shiny::shinyApp(
+        ui = shiny::fluidPage(
+          use_empty_state(),
+          shiny::actionButton("show", "Show empty state!"),
+          shiny::actionButton("hide", "Hide empty state!"),
+          shiny::tableOutput("my_table")
+        ),
+        server = function(input, output) {
+          empty_state_content <- htmltools::div(class = "myDiv")
+          empty_state_manager <- EmptyStateManager$new(
+            id = "my_table",
+            html_content = empty_state_content,
+            z_index = 3
+          )
+          shiny::observeEvent(input$show, {
+            empty_state_manager$show()
+          })
+          shiny::observeEvent(input$hide, {
+            empty_state_manager$hide()
+          })
+          output$my_table <- shiny::renderTable(data.frame(NA))
+        }
+      )
+    }
+
+
+    app <- shinytest2::AppDriver$new(test_app(), name = "test")
+    app$click("show")
+
+    js_get_z_index <- "function getZIndex() {
+        const container = document.querySelector('.empty-state-container');
+      return window.getComputedStyle(container).zIndex;
+      };
+
+      getZIndex();"
+
+    expect_equal(app$get_js(js_get_z_index), "3")
+    app$stop()
+  })
 })
 
 describe("use_empty_state()", {