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 CARBO Cermaics (NYSE: CRR).

The supplier of ceramic proppant for fracturing oil and gas wells is a yield-gusher after boosting its quarterly dividend 13% to $0.27 a share. Investors should be used to this by now. CARBO has come through with 12 consecutive years of hikes.

J.M. Smucker (NYSE: SJM) is also spreading its quarterly distributions a little thicker. The jelly giant's new rate of $0.52 a share is an 8% improvement.

Williams (NYSE: WMB) is also letting it flow. The energy infrastructure play with interests in thousands of miles of interstate gas pipelines will be shelling out $0.3125 a share for its next quarterly payout. It's a marginal uptick from the $0.30 a share it was paying before, but Williams has committed to increases on a quarterly basis in the near term.

Williams expects its total distributions for this year to be 55% ahead of last year, and it has also gone public with plans to boost its yield by 20% in both 2013 and 2014.

Finally, we have Mosaic (NYSE: MOS) fertilizing its dividend. The producer of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients is doubling its quarterly distributions to $0.25 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. A 30-day trial subscription will let you see if it's right for you.

The Dow is another place where yield chasers come for meaty payouts, but you don't want to buy all 30 stocks that make up the index. A new report singles out the three Dow companies that dividend investors need to own. It's a free report, so check it out now.