diff --git a/R/utils_compact.R b/R/utils_compact.R
index 724b72672..19f5562c8 100644
--- a/R/utils_compact.R
+++ b/R/utils_compact.R
@@ -9,6 +9,13 @@
 #' compact_list(c(1, NA, NA), remove_na = TRUE)
 #' @export
 compact_list <- function(x, remove_na = FALSE) {
+  # remove vctr-class attributes
+  if (is.data.frame(x)) {
+    x[] <- lapply(x, function(i) {
+      class(i) <- setdiff(class(i), c("haven_labelled", "vctrs_vctr"))
+      i
+    })
+  }
   if (remove_na) {
     x[!sapply(x, function(i) !is_model(i) && !inherits(i, c("Formula", "gFormula")) && (length(i) == 0L || is.null(i) || (length(i) == 1L && is.na(i)) || all(is.na(i)) || any(i == "NULL", na.rm = TRUE)))]
   } else {
@@ -30,5 +37,5 @@ compact_list <- function(x, remove_na = FALSE) {
 #'
 #' @export
 compact_character <- function(x) {
-  x[!sapply(x, function(i) nchar(i) == 0 || all(is.na(i)) || any(i == "NULL", na.rm = TRUE))]
+  x[!sapply(x, function(i) !nzchar(i, keepNA = TRUE) || all(is.na(i)) || any(i == "NULL", na.rm = TRUE))]
 }
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-compact-list.R b/tests/testthat/test-compact-list.R
index a8a009613..6867c6fed 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-compact-list.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-compact-list.R
@@ -1,19 +1,27 @@
 test_that("compact_list works as expected", {
-  expect_equal(compact_list(list(NULL, 1, c(NA, NA))), list(1, c(NA, NA)))
-  expect_equal(compact_list(c(1, NA, NA)), c(1, NA, NA))
-  expect_equal(compact_list(list(NULL, 1, list(NULL, NULL))), list(1))
-  expect_equal(compact_list(c(1, NA, NA), remove_na = TRUE), 1)
-  expect_equal(compact_list(c(1, 2, 3), remove_na = TRUE), c(1, 2, 3))
-  expect_equal(compact_list(""), "")
+  expect_identical(compact_list(list(NULL, 1, c(NA, NA))), list(1, c(NA, NA)))
+  expect_identical(compact_list(c(1, NA, NA)), c(1, NA, NA))
+  expect_identical(compact_list(list(NULL, 1, list(NULL, NULL))), list(1))
+  expect_identical(compact_list(c(1, NA, NA), remove_na = TRUE), 1)
+  expect_identical(compact_list(c(1, 2, 3), remove_na = TRUE), c(1, 2, 3))
+  expect_identical(compact_list(""), "")
   expect_null(compact_list(NULL))
-  expect_equal(compact_list(logical(0)), logical(0))
+  expect_identical(compact_list(logical(0)), logical(0))
 })
 
 test_that("compact_list, logical > 1", {
   x <- list(a = 1, b = c(1, 2), c = NA)
-  expect_equal(compact_list(x, remove_na = TRUE), list(a = 1, b = c(1, 2)))
-  expect_equal(compact_list(x, remove_na = FALSE), list(a = 1, b = c(1, 2), c = NA))
+  expect_identical(compact_list(x, remove_na = TRUE), list(a = 1, b = c(1, 2)))
+  expect_identical(compact_list(x, remove_na = FALSE), list(a = 1, b = c(1, 2), c = NA))
   x <- list(a = 1, b = c(NA, NA), c = NA)
-  expect_equal(compact_list(x, remove_na = TRUE), list(a = 1))
-  expect_equal(compact_list(x, remove_na = FALSE), list(a = 1, b = c(NA, NA), c = NA))
+  expect_identical(compact_list(x, remove_na = TRUE), list(a = 1))
+  expect_identical(compact_list(x, remove_na = FALSE), list(a = 1, b = c(NA, NA), c = NA))
+})
+
+test_that("compact_list, vctrs", {
+  data(mtcars)
+  class(mtcars$mpg) <- c("haven_labelled", "vctrs_vctr", "double")
+  attr(mtcars$mpg, "labels") <- c(`21` = 21)
+  out <- compact_list(mtcars)
+  expect_true(all(vapply(out, class, character(1)) == "numeric"))
 })