workers' compensation

noun

variants or less commonly workers' comp

-ˈkämp 

: a system of insurance that reimburses an employer for damages that must be paid to an employee for injury occurring in the course of employment

Examples of workers' compensation in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Walmart's third-party workers' compensation administrators investigated Fonseca, videotaped him driving an RV, and determined no further action was warranted, his attorneys said. —Tom Rogers, Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2024

Walmart must pay almost $35 million to one of its former truck drivers after a California jury found the retailer had falsely accused him of workers' compensation fraud and wrongfully terminated him. —Megan Cerullo, CBS News, 22 Nov. 2024

Apparently, the information was placed on an internal Web site by Southern California Medical-Legal Consultants, a California company that represents medical providers in the recovery of billing from workers' compensation insurance carriers. —IEEE Spectrum, 23 Aug. 2011

Small business owners who handle timekeeping and workers' compensation manually add countless hours to their already extensive administrative load. —Sean Manning, Forbes, 22 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1925, in the meaning defined above

Legal Definition

workers' compensation

noun

work·​ers' compensation

1

: compensation for injury to an employee arising out of and in the course of employment that is paid to the worker or his or her dependents by an employer whose strict liability for such compensation is established by statute

Note: Where established by statute, workers' compensation is generally the exclusive remedy for injuries arising from employment, with some exceptions. Workers' compensation statutes commonly include explicit exclusions for injury caused intentionally, by willful misconduct, and by voluntary intoxication from alcohol or illegal drugs.

2

: workers' compensation insurance