Right now I am a contract employee, and had to fork out the money to get it, but plan to get it sometime in my career. As others have mentioned, I don't really intend to use much from the class but I do intend to use the certification behind my name to get promotions or future jobs.
I talked to one guy who has been in the recruiting industry for years said he has come across HR individuals that are required to only hire people with their PMP certification. He said he tried telling them, there are very good PM's out there that don't have their PMP certification and they can't even entertain it, cause their company is requiring it.