Dividend checks continue to get fatter in corporate America, as more companies jack up their distribution rates.

Readers of the Income Investor newsletter can certainly appreciate that kind of thinking. Let's take a closer look at some of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.

Let's start with B&G Foods (NYSE: BGS).

The company behind Ortega taco shells, Ac'cent seasonings, and Cream of Wheat is spooning out a quarterly dividend of $0.23 a share, a nearly 10% increase from its previous rate. You won't find too many food companies packing yields of 5% like B&G Foods is right now.

Visa (NYSE: V) is also charging its distributions higher, bumping its payout 47% higher to $0.22 a share every three months. Shoppers are choosing plastic over paper. Visa went public in 2008 with a quarterly rate of $0.105 a share. Three years of substantial annual hikes later, Visa's disbursements have more than doubled.

Jabil Circuit (NYSE: JBL) is electrifying its outgoing checks. The electronic product maker is bumping its quarterly dividend 14% higher to $0.08 a share. Jabil will also be returning money to its shareowners through a $100 million buyback.

Finally, we have Cass Information Systems (Nasdaq: CASS) on the gas. The invoice payment and information services provider is bumping its quarterly distributions 6% higher to $0.17 a share, and it's also kicking in a 10% stock dividend.

These companies join limited partnerships Magellan Midstream Partners (Nasdaq: MMP), Kinder Morgan Energy (NYSE: KMP), and Natural Resources Partners (NYSE: NRP) in recently jacking up their yields.

Subscribers to the Income Investor newsletter can appreciate the companies sending more and more money to their investors. The newsletter singles out companies that are committed to growing their distributions with market-thumping results.

Want to see what is being recommended these days? Go ahead and give the newsletter service a shot with a 30-day trial subscription. Who knows? Maybe the next thing that will get hiked will be your interest.

If you want to track these stocks to see if and when they hike their payouts again, consider adding them to My Watchlist.