We Counted Every Payment From Five Dividend ETFs. The 'Dividend Growth' Funds Didn't Grow Fastest.
We Counted Every Payment From Five Dividend ETFs. The "Dividend Growth" Funds Didn't Grow Fastest.
Two widely held dividend ETFs are built around dividend increases. VIG holds companies that have raised their dividend for at least 10 consecutive years. SDY holds companies that have raised it for at least 20. Investors buy them expecting a rising income stream.
We checked whether the income actually rose faster. We collected every quarterly distribution these funds paid from 2014 through 2025 — 240 payments across five funds — and measured what each one actually put in a shareholder's account per share, year by year.
The fund that raised its payout fastest was not either of the growth funds. It was SCHD, whose name says nothing about growth at all. And SDY, built entirely from companies that had raised dividends for 20 straight years, cut its own distribution in two of the eleven years we measured.
What We Measured
For each fund we summed the quarterly cash distributions by calendar year, grouped by ex-dividend date, from 2014 through 2025. All SCHD figures are adjusted for its 3-for-1 share split in October 2024 (as documented in our public corrections log), so the per-share amounts are comparable across the whole period.
| Fund | Name | What the index requires |
|---|---|---|
| VIG | Vanguard Dividend Appreciation | Companies with 10+ consecutive years of dividend increases |
| SDY | SPDR S&P Dividend | Companies with 20+ consecutive years of increases, weighted by yield |
| SCHD | Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity | 10+ consecutive years of dividend payments, plus fundamental quality screens |
| VYM | Vanguard High Dividend Yield | The higher-yielding half of the U.S. market |
| DVY | iShares Select Dividend | High-yielding stocks screened on payout ratio and dividend record |
Two well-known funds are missing. DGRO and HDV shifted their ex-dividend schedule in 2019–2020 — HDV had three ex-dates in one calendar year and five in the next. Calendar-year totals for those two aren't comparable to the rest, so we left them out rather than publish a number we'd have to apologize for later (consistent with our research methodology).
What Each Fund Actually Paid, Per Share
| Year | VIG | SDY | SCHD | VYM | DVY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | $1.585 | $1.786 | $0.349 | $1.908 | $2.406 |
| 2015 | $1.819 | $1.987 | $0.382 | $2.149 | $2.590 |
| 2016 | $1.826 | $2.235 | $0.419 | $2.206 | $2.695 |
| 2017 | $1.919 | $2.099 | $0.449 | $2.401 | $2.956 |
| 2018 | $2.038 | $2.442 | $0.480 | $2.649 | $3.197 |
| 2019 | $2.134 | $2.640 | $0.575 | $2.842 | $3.601 |
| 2020 | $2.297 | $3.022 | $0.676 | $2.906 | $3.522 |
| 2021 | $2.660 | $3.391 | $0.750 | $3.096 | $3.824 |
| 2022 | $2.973 | $3.196 | $0.854 | $3.252 | $4.141 |
| 2023 | $3.208 | $3.298 | $0.886 | $3.478 | $4.476 |
| 2024 | $3.379 | $3.382 | $0.994 | $3.495 | $4.794 |
| 2025 | $3.558 | $3.634 | $1.048 | $3.501 | $5.145 |
The Growth Ranking
| Fund | Name suggests | Payout Growth per Year | Total Growth 2014→2025 | Years the Payout Fell |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCHD | quality, not growth | 10.51% | +200% | 0 |
| VIG | growth | 7.63% | +124% | 0 |
| DVY | yield | 7.15% | +114% | 1 |
| SDY | growth | 6.67% | +103% | 2 |
| VYM | yield | 5.67% | +84% | 0 |
SCHD tripled its per-share payout in eleven years. VIG, the largest fund explicitly built on dividend increases, roughly doubled. SDY, built on the longest increase streaks in the market, grew the least of the two growth funds and finished behind a plain high-yield fund.
The name predicted almost nothing. Of the two funds at the top of the growth ranking, one is marketed on quality and one is marketed on growth. Of the two at the bottom, one is marketed on yield and one on 20-year dividend streaks. We previously observed similar divergence when analyzing SCHD and VYM holdings overlap.
Interactive 12-Year Payout Growth Simulator
Use the interactive tool below to simulate how an initial investment in 2014 performed across each fund in actual annual cash distributions, cumulative income, yield on cost, and quarterly seasonality:
Dividend Growth & Actual Payout Simulator
Compare 12 years of audited distribution cash flows across five popular dividend ETFs. See why marketed “dividend growth” and “aristocrat” funds lagged SCHD in actual payout raises.
| Fund | 2014 Starting Income | 2025 Ending Income | 2025 Yield on Cost | 12-Yr Total Cash Collected | Payout Cuts | 10-Yr Total Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCHDQuality Screened | $2,920 | $8,768+200% | 8.77% | $65,779 | 0 cuts ✅ | 12.37% / yr |
| VIG10+ Yr Growth Streak | $1,980 | $4,445+125% | 4.44% | $36,722 | 0 cuts ✅ | 13.13% / yr |
| DVYHigh Yield & Screened | $3,380 | $7,228+114% | 7.23% | $60,895 | 1 cut ⚠️2020 (-2.2%) | 10.11% / yr |
| SDY20+ Yr Aristocrats | $2,450 | $4,985+104% | 4.99% | $45,422 | 2 cuts ⚠️2017 (-6.1%), 2022 (-5.8%) | 9.37% / yr |
| VYMBroad High Yield | $2,950 | $5,413+84% | 5.41% | $52,387 | 0 cuts ✅ | 11.61% / yr |
The Aristocrat Fund That Cut Its Own Payout
SDY's holdings had all raised their dividends for at least 20 consecutive years. The fund's own distribution still fell twice:
| Year | SDY Distribution | Annual Change | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | $2.235 | +12.5% | Payout expansion |
| 2017 | $2.099 | -6.1% | Distribution Cut #1 |
| 2021 | $3.391 | +12.2% | Post-pandemic surge |
| 2022 | $3.196 | -5.8% | Distribution Cut #2 |
This isn't a contradiction, and it's the most useful finding in this data. A fund of dividend raisers is not itself a dividend raiser.
A fund's distribution depends on which stocks it holds this year and how heavily it weights them. When the index reconstitutes, high-yielding holdings get replaced with lower-yielding ones, weights shift, and the cash the fund collects can drop even though every company in it raised its dividend. This dynamic mirrors what we discovered in our broader 9-year audit of dividend ETF distribution cuts.
VIG has its own version of this. Vanguard changed VIG's benchmark in 2021, moving it to the S&P U.S. Dividend Growers Index. The fund's payout record spans two different sets of index construction rules.
So the consecutive-increase streak belongs to the underlying companies. It does not transfer automatically to the ETF shares you own.
Is This One Lucky Period?
We tested it. The ranking isn't an artifact of the start and end dates:
| Period | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014–2025 | SCHD 10.51% | VIG 7.63% | DVY 7.15% | SDY 6.67% | VYM 5.67% |
| 2015–2025 | SCHD 10.61% | DVY 7.11% | VIG 6.94% | SDY 6.23% | VYM 5.00% |
| 2016–2025 | SCHD 10.71% | VIG 7.69% | DVY 7.45% | SDY 5.55% | VYM 5.27% |
| 2017–2025 | SCHD 11.18% | VIG 8.02% | DVY 7.17% | SDY 7.10% | VYM 4.83% |
| 2014–2024 | SCHD 11.04% | VIG 7.86% | DVY 7.14% | SDY 6.59% | VYM 6.24% |
| 2019–2025 | SCHD 10.52% | VIG 8.89% | DVY 6.13% | SDY 5.47% | VYM 3.54% |
SCHD ranks first in every single window, ahead of the runner-up by between 1.6 and 3.5 percentage points per year.
We also removed each individual year's growth in turn and recalculated: SCHD's growth rate stayed between 9.6% and 11.2%, and VIG's between 6.8% and 8.4%. The performance gap never closed.
Faster Payout Growth Didn't Mean Better Returns
This is the part that keeps the finding honest. Here are the same five funds ranked by their 10-year annualized total return, taken from each sponsor's fact sheet as of June 30, 2026:
| Fund | Payout Growth Rank | 10-Year Total Return | Return Rank | Primary Return Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIG | 2 | 13.13% | 1 | Multiple expansion / Tech-adjacent equities |
| SCHD | 1 | 12.37% | 2 | Balanced cash yield + fundamental growth |
| VYM | 5 | 11.61% | 3 | Value tilt / broad equity participation |
| DVY | 3 | 10.11% | 4 | Heavy utility and financial weighting |
| SDY | 4 | 9.37% | 5 | High expense drag + equal-weighted turnover |
VIG grew its payout 2.9 points a year more slowly than SCHD and still produced the highest total return. VYM grew its payout the slowest of all five and finished third on return. The two rankings agree loosely (a rank correlation of 0.60), not closely. For a deeper breakdown of after-tax net results, see our scorecard of 11 dividend ETFs ranked by after-tax real return.
The reason is straightforward: total return is mostly price. A fund can deliver a strong total return while its income stream grows slowly, if the market keeps repricing its holdings upward — which is roughly what happened to VIG, whose yield today sits at 1.51%, the lowest of the five.
These metrics answer different questions:
- Payout growth tells you what happens to the cash if you never sell a share.
- Total return tells you what happens to your liquidated wealth.
If you spend the distributions in retirement, the first number is the one that pays your bills. We explored this in our 14-year study of SCHD's real returns after taxes and inflation.
What You Get Today
Growth rates only matter alongside the starting yield. Here is where the five funds sit now:
| Fund | Dividend Yield (late Sep 2026) | Measured Payout Growth | Expense Ratio | 12-Year Payout Track Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DVY | 3.45% | 7.15% | 0.38% | 1 cut (2020) |
| SCHD | 3.17% | 10.51% | 0.06% | 0 cuts |
| SDY | 2.53% | 6.67% | 0.35% | 2 cuts (2017, 2022) |
| VYM | 2.33% | 5.67% | 0.04% | 0 cuts (frozen 2024–2025) |
| VIG | 1.51% | 7.63% | 0.04% | 0 cuts |
The usual trade-off in dividend investing is that a growth fund starts with a lower yield and catches up later. In this data, VIG started lower and grew more slowly than SCHD, so on income alone there was no catching up to do. The compensation came as price appreciation instead.
VYM deserves a note of its own. Its distribution rose just 0.5% in 2024 and 0.2% in 2025 — essentially frozen for two years, after a decade of steady raises.
One Practical Detail: The Quarters Are Not Equal
Every fund here pays quarterly, and the payments are notably lumpy. Averaged across twelve years:
| Fund | Q1 (Spring) | Q2 (Summer) | Q3 (Fall) | Q4 (Winter) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIG | 22.5% | 25.1% | 24.2% | 28.2% |
| VYM | 21.5% | 25.5% | 24.3% | 28.7% |
| SCHD | 22.1% | 25.5% | 25.1% | 27.4% |
| SDY | 21.7% | 24.3% | 24.2% | 29.8% |
| DVY | 23.4% | 23.4% | 27.4% | 25.8% |
The first quarter is the smallest of the year for four of the five funds. For SDY, the gap between its largest and smallest quarterly payment averaged 33% of an average quarter. Anyone budgeting on "the fund yields 3%, so that's 0.75% a quarter" will be short in the spring and long in December.
What This Analysis Doesn't Capture
To maintain institutional accuracy, consider these modeling boundaries:
- Fund distributions are not company dividend growth: A fund's payout per share can rise because its companies raised dividends, or because the index moved into higher-yielding stocks at reconstitution. We measured the cash that reached shareholders, which is what an income investor receives, but it isn't a clean measure of the underlying companies' dividend growth.
- One twelve-year window: 2014–2025 had no prolonged recession and an unusual rate cycle. Another historical period could rank these funds differently.
- Different windows for the two measures: Distribution growth is calculated by calendar year through 2025. Total returns are ten-year annualized figures at NAV as of June 30, 2026, taken from fund sponsor fact sheets. They overlap but don't cover identical periods.
- Ex-date grouping: Payments are grouped by ex-dividend date. Some data providers group by payment date, which shifts a late-December payment into the following year and changes annual totals slightly.
- Two funds excluded: DGRO and HDV were left out because of the distribution-schedule changes in 2019–2020 described above, not because of their underlying results.
- Taxes and friction: This audit measures pre-tax distributions. In a taxable account, taxes reduce net cash flow according to your bracket.
The Bottom Line
Across 2014–2025, SCHD raised its distribution 10.51% a year and tripled it. VIG, built on 10-year dividend-increase streaks, managed 7.63%. SDY, built on 20-year streaks, managed 6.67% and cut its own payout twice. The ranking held in every sub-period we tested.
The label on the fund describes a rule for picking stocks, not a promise about the check you receive. Both are knowable: the rule is in the prospectus, and the payment history is public. If you're buying a fund for a rising income stream, the payment history is the one that has already been tested.