Shareholders of Northrop Grumman Corp. have rejected a call for an annual advisory vote on executive pay.

The Los Angeles-based defense and government contractor’s board unanimously recommended to board members that the proposal be axed. Northrop added that the proposal was supported by 37 percent of the votes but did not disclose how many votes were cast against the measure.

“Investors are increasingly concerned about mushrooming executive compensation, which sometimes appears to be insufficiently aligned with the creation of shareholder value,” the Service Employees International Union Master Trust, which made the proposal, said in a statement. The Washington-based Trust owns 13,000 shares in Northrop.

“An annual shareholder review could be detrimental to the company’s future efforts to recruit and retain top management talent,” Northrop’s board said in a statement in an SEC filing.

Shares in Northrop closed up 96 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $76.83 Wednesday in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.