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 Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS).

Meatier yields? Yeah, we got that. The world's largest office products retailer boosted its quarterly rate 10% to $0.11 a share. It's not as simple as tapping its signature "easy" button, but it gets the job done.

Medallion Financial (Nasdaq: TAXI) is also hailing a hike. The company -- a specialty finance company that originates and services loans financing the purchase of valuable taxicab medallions -- is jacking up its quarterly disbursements 5% to $0.20 a share. Medallion passes on most of its profitability to shareowners, and right now that translates into a healthy 7.3% yield.

General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) also realizes that the best defense is a good offense, so the government contractor is arming its investors with quarterly distributions of $0.51 a share. General Dynamics was shelling out $0.47 a share every three months before that.

Finally, we have Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) not exactly phoning it in. The wireless chip giant is increasing its quarterly payouts 16% to $0.25 a share, but giving its investors enough pocket change to spring for something off the Dollar Menu every year isn't enough. Qualcomm also announced a new $4 billion share buyback plan.

Checks and balances
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.