SEC site reveals executive pay

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission launched an Internet tool Friday that makes it easier for investors to research and compare executive compensation.

The Executive Compensation Reader, available on the agency's Web site, provides data on the top 500 U.S. companies that have filed proxy statements with the SEC.

"Gone are the complicated data expeditions that forced investors to hunt through financial statements, footnotes, proxy statements, and other disclosure documents to figure out how much a company pays its top executives," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in a press release Friday.

The move builds on new executive compensation disclosure requirements that went into effect earlier this year.

Using the compensation reader, investors can quickly find annual pay, salary, bonus, stock and options information as well as company perks and compare those figures with other companies sorting by industry, market capitalization or revenue in table or graph form.