Workers' compensation or workers' comp (formerly workmen's compensation until the name was changed to make it gender-neutral) is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence.

The trade-off between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system is known as "the compensation bargain." One of the problems that the compensation bargain solved is the problem of employers becoming insolvent as a result of high damage awards. The system of collective liability was created to prevent that, and thus to ensure security of compensation to the workers. Individual immunity is the necessary corollary to collective liability.