When I was just graduating from university, the GPA is always being considered for the top-tier jobs. Read: investment banking and consulting.
Having a low overall GPA will bar you from getting even that first interview, but once you get past that "gatekeeper", it's normally your previous work and educational (class and extracurricular) experiences and presentation that determine if you make it further in the hiring process.
After the first job (and unless you leave very quickly, IMHO), the GPA becomes less important. Replacing it is your work experience, and companies will ask you in interviews how your past work experiences can make you a good hire over someone else. If you get something like a "
summa cum laude", you definitely should be putting it into your CV, but having been a hiring manager in different companies, I have to say that I stop paying attention to these - and GPAs - very quickly. Unless it is for a graduate training program, there isn't much point, IMHO, to review them. What's more important, I think, is the project work and/or writing (for non-tech/etc. majors) that show that you actually know how to apply what you taught - even in strictly controlled projects - than can spit back the book's info in exams.
Schools have different educational curricula, and you can also buff your GPA by taking easier classes, say. If you are also looking at people who went to schools outside of the U.S., then their CVs might not even have GPAs - or have numbers that don't translate well.