A look at the SEC's new executive compensation tables

The Securities and Exchange Commission has unveiled a new internet tool, the Executive Pay Finder, to make it easier for investors to research and compare executive compensation at public companies.

Chairman Chris Cox said that "Gone are the complicated data expeditions that forced investors to hunt through financial statements. The result is quicker and better analysis, and better-informed shareholders."

For now, the service only provides data on the top 500 U.S. companies that have filed proxy statements with the SEC, but it's a pretty cool tool.

Here's the summary table for Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), and you can compare the compensation of officers by position with those at other companies, all in the same table. Here is a comparison with PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP).

You can even import the results to an Excel spreadsheet if you're feeling especially anal retentive.There's nothing new here, but it's good to see the SEC making an effort to make important disclosures more accessible to investors.

Now if only Cox and his fellow commissioners would stop making it harder for shareholders to actually effect change at the companies they own.