The Shops Act 1911 was a United Kingdom piece of legislation which allowed a weekly half holiday for shop staff. This became known in Britain as "early closing day". It formed part of the Liberal welfare reforms of 1906–1914. Background Four brief acts, the Shop Hours Act 1892, the Shop Hours Act 1893, the Shop Hours Act 1895 and the Seats for Shop Assistants Act 1899, were the first very limited steps taken towards the positive regulation of the employment of shop assistants in the United Kingdom. The House had resolved that more drastic legislation was required. As regards shops, therefore, in place of such general codes as apply to factories, laundries, mines—only three kinds of protective requirement are binding on employers of shop assistants: Limitation of the weekly total of hours of work of persons under eighteen years of age to seventy-four inclusive of meal-times; prohibition of the employment of such persons in a shop on the same day that they have, to the knowledge of the employer, been employed in any factory or workshop for a longer period than would, in both classes of employment together, amount to the number of hours permitted to such persons in a factory or workshop; provision for the supply of seats by the employer, in all rooms of a shop or other premises where goods are retailed to the public, for the use of female assistants employed in retailing the goods—the seats to be in the proportion of not fewer than one to every three female assistants. The first two requirements are contained in the Shop Hours Act 1892, which also prescribed that a notice, referring to the provisions of the act, and stating the number of hours in the week during which a young person may be lawfully employed in the shop, shall be kept exhibited by the employer; the third requirement was first provided by the Seats for Shop Assistants Act 1899. A wide interpretation is given by the act of 1892 to the class of workplace to which the limitation of hours applies. "Shop" means retail and wholesale shops, markets, stalls and warehouses in which assistants are employed for hire, and includes licensed public-houses and refreshment houses of any kind. The person responsible for the observance of the acts is the "employer" of the "young persons" (i.e., persons under the age of eighteen years), whose hours are limited, and