

Q: How can I find out how much a company is paying the CEO?

A: Investors who wonder who is paying the big salaries collected by CEOs don't have to look far: It's them.

The multimillion-dollar total compensation packages awarded to executives are paid for by the company. While the board of directors, with the help of compensation consultants, decides how much to pay, ultimately the money is coming from the company's coffers.

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And since investors are paying the salary, they might as well know how to look up how much they're paying. Thanks to changes pushed by the Securities and Exchange Commission over the years, it's gotten increasingly easy for investors to look up CEO compensation.

The source of CEO pay information is the proxy statement, which is a document public companies issue annually to shareholders prior to the annual meeting. The proxy lists items that are up for a shareholder vote, but they also contain information on executive pay. Investors can download proxy statements either from companies' websites or from the SEC's site at

Proxy statements contain a section called the summary compensation table, which lays out all the details about how CEOs are paid. There you'll find the executive's salary, bonus, stock and option awards, change in pension value and other payments. USA TODAY has also listed the pay of many top CEOs in its annual study.