Problem with label for tables having small text-size

I recently had the following problem, I was using a label to reference a table where I placed the “tabular”- environment into the “small”- environment to decrease its size. The number indicated by the reference was not the table index, but rather the number of the section/subsection within which I placed the table. The problems seems to exist in both, Miktex and MacTex…

A table ususally has the following structure (for an introduction to tables click here) with the “small”- environment added to slightly decrease its size:

\begin{table}[htdp]
\caption{default}
\begin{small}
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{small}
\label{default}
\end{table}

Placing the label inside both, “small”- and “center”- environment solves the problem.
Hence:

\begin{table}[htdp]
\caption{default}
\begin{small}
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\end{tabular}
\label{default}
\end{center}
\end{small}
\end{table}

I actually don’t know why Latex does not translate the reference correctly, as the label is still within the “table”-environment, at least the problem can be solved that way.