With the clock counting down to the busiest shopping day of the year, community leaders Wednesday staged a noisy protest inside a Wal-Mart store to protest the wages paid to local workers.

Pastor Jim Hopkins, of Oakland’s Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, an organizer of the event, said Wal-Mart employees were not paid enough to cover their child care costs.

"Here's a very profitable corporation making lots of money and their workers aren't able to afford child care,” he told KTVU.

Hopkins was among a group of about 20 protesters who marched through the Oakland Wal-Mart during lunch hour and presented an oversize "invoice" to Wal-Mart managers.

The group said Wal-Mart reportedly made $15 billion in profits in 2011, but only pays its associates an average of only $8.81 an hour.

The company also limits workers hours, and doesn't provide affordable benefits, forcing the parents who work for them to turn to child care subsidies, the protesters said.

"If Wal-Mart did its fair share and paid associates a living wage, it would support children and help so many families. Wal-Mart makes big profits on low wages, but parents like me pay the price because Wal-Mart adds to the crisis in child care assistance," said Efuru Lynch, an Alameda County parent.

There was no immediate response from Wal-Mart.