The State Compensation Insurance Fund (State Fund) is a public enterprise fund established by the State of California through legislation enacted in 1913 to provide an available market for workers' compensation insurance to employers located in California. The State Fund is governed by a Board of Directors with authority comparable to that of the governing body of a private insurance carrier.

The State Fund's objective is to serve all California employers as an efficient and fairly priced industry leader in workers' compensation insurance, and it competes with other insurance companies. The State Fund is self-supported with revenues from premiums written and from investment income. It does not receive any financial support from the state, and the state is not liable for any obligations of the State Fund. Almost all of the State Fund's employees are civil servants.

Separate from its insurance business, the State Fund has been engaged by the Department of Personnel Administration to provide workers' compensation claims administration services for legally uninsured departments, agencies, boards, commissions, or other subdivisions of state government under a Master Agreement. Under this agreement, the State Fund pays compensation benefits to injured workers and medical benefits to health providers, and is reimbursed by state agencies for amounts paid plus service fees equal to the costs of these services.