Major shareholders should be given a bigger say in appointments to company boards, shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna will urge today.
He will back proposals from the High Pay Commission to improve transparency in top executive packages and set out Labour plans to "go further".
His suggestions include putting the four or five biggest shareholders in a company in charge of finding people to serve on its board.
The process is usually in the hands of other board members, sitting on the nomination committee.
He will say that the nomination committee should feature major shareholders rather than board members and also have responsibility for overall remuneration levels.
"This would create far stronger lines of accountability to those who ultimately own the business and would promote the shareholder activism and engagement which is key," he will say.
Umunna will also call for closer scrutiny of remuneration consultants amid concerns that they are "ratcheting up pay" in a way he will liken to "unscrupulous football players' agents - inflating salaries sometimes way beyond talent or contribution".
"Part of the problem is that - in their advisory role to remuneration committees - the consultants owe their duties to the Board and not to the shareholders," he will say.
"This needs to be looked at, along with the risk of conflict where consultants are advising both executive management and non-executive directors on remuneration.
"That is why it is right that companies should publish the extent of their use of remuneration consultants."
Mr Umunna will say that a small group of executives are paid "far in excess of what they deserve" and endorse recommendations by the High Pay Commission to simplify pay packages, publish those of the 10 most highly-paid employees outside the boardroom and the reporting of total remuneration.
But he will say there are "a number of problems" with prime minister David Cameron's plan to allow shareholders to veto pay packages.
The proposal is "backward looking" and would create legal problems in trying unpick deals already agreed, he will argue.
"It is not enough for David Cameron to say he wants shareholders to be given a vote on these issues," he will say.
"We have seen and heard this kind of thing from him before - talking a good game but fiddling at the margins.
"I believe in shareholders' democracy but democracy is about more than voting. If we are to empower shareholders, they need information provided through greater transparency of boardroom pay - as well as the means to mobilise and become more active in the running of their companies."