WASHINGTON — A House panel yesterday approved legislation written by majority Democrats to give shareholders at public companies a formal say in executives' compensation packages.

The House Financial Services Committee, on a 37-29 vote mostly along party lines, sent the bill to the full House. No comparable measure has yet been put forward in the Senate.

The proposal by committee chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., would give shareholders a chance to cast a nonbinding confidence or no-confidence vote on executive pay plans, allowing them either to ratify or disapprove of them.

Such shareholder votes are the practice in Britain, Australia and Sweden. Advocates say pay packages are rarely voted down, but the knowledge that they must be voted on has helped keep executive compensation in check overseas.

Investor advocates, union pension funds and shareholder groups have been pushing for such "say on pay" votes.

The subject clearly hits a nerve with Americans, who hear reports almost daily of excessive pay and perks for executives while their companies stumble, lay off employees or renege on billions of dollars in pension obligations for workers' retirement. The chasm between executives' salaries and the pay of rank-and-file employees continues to widen.