This payment of wages happened directly in cases in which the family was working on a collective piece-rate basis; in cases in which the child earned independent wages, these wages were usually turned over to the parents as well.109 The wages that the supervisor offered in many physically demanding occupations frequently varied on the basis of the physical size of the child.110 Although a fraction of child laborers, some as young as 10,111 negotiated their pay directly with their employer, a parent or guardian frequently negotiated it.112 In either case, once earned, these wages generally became the property of the parents.