WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — US Representative Barney Frank said regulators should force companies to disclose compensation for their best-paid employees, potentially forcing Wall Street to reveal how much top traders and money managers earn every year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission "should expand the disclosure", Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview. "They can do that without us. There's no point in legislating."

The SEC requires companies to disclose compensation for chief executive officers, chief financial officers and the three highest-paid executive officers. The rules don't apply to employees such as Andrew Hall, the former head of Citigroup Inc.'s energy-trading unit, who got about $100 million in 2008.

The agency dropped a proposal four years ago to make firms reveal the compensation of non-executives after business groups said it would stir jealousy among employees and help recruiters steal prized talent. The comments by Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, show that lawmakers want the SEC to revisit the issue amid fury in Washington over banks paying billions of dollars in bonuses a year after receiving government bailouts.

Lawmakers are discussing expanding legislation that lets shareholders weigh in on corporate pay, Frank said. The House approved a measure in December that would give investors a non- binding vote on the compensation for the five executives named in companies' proxies.

The expansion under discussion would give shareholders of financial companies a vote on the percentage of annual revenue that's allocated to pay, Frank said.