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.

We can start with H.J. Heinz (NYSE: HNZ). The ketchup king boosted its quarterly dividend 7% to $0.515 a share. Investors should be used to this by now. The consumer brands giant has come through with higher disbursements for nine consecutive years now.

Bristow Group (NYSE: BRS) is also seeing its yield take off. The provider of helicopter services to the worldwide offshore energy industry is increasing its quarterly rate 33% to $0.20 a share.

Minutes after that press release went out, Bristow announced fiscal 2012 financial results that included record operating revenue and cash flows.

Viacom's (Nasdaq: VIA) (Nasdaq: VIAB) also giving shareholders of the MTV parent "money for nothing" by juicing up its distributions by 10%. Investors will now be receiving $0.275 a share every three months. Beyond MTV, Viacom's other cable properties include Comedy Central, VH-1, and Nickelodeon.

Finally we have W.R. Berkley (NYSE: WRB) insuring meatier dividend checks. The Connecticut-based insurance holding company increased its quarterly rate 13% to $0.09 a share.

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 MyWatchlist.