Compared to other states, Hawaii has a low percentage of working-poor families and the state leads the nation in health insurance coverage for those families, a recent report found.

But the author of the report and local experts say the statistics can be deceiving.

The report shows 22 percent of isle families qualify as working poor—lower than the national average of 28 percent.

“;Hawaii should not rest on its laurels,”; said Brandon Roberts, a co-author of the study for the Working Poor Families Project. The report, released last week, is based on an analysis of Census data.

Low-income working families are defined as those earning less than twice the poverty level. In Hawaii, where the poverty level is higher than the mainland, a low-income family of four would have made less than $46,000 in 2006.

“;If you look beyond the figures in the report, maybe Hawaii's families aren't doing that well,”; said Sylvia Yuen, the director of the University of Hawaii Center on the Family.

Yuen said the federal poverty level for Hawaii is too low and a family with two children needs to make $57,893 in Honolulu to survive on a “;bare-bones budget”; with Hawaii's higher cost of living.

About 64 percent of Hawaii's working poor pay more than one-third of their income for housing, slightly higher than the U.S. average of 60 percent.

The report notes that Hawaii's working poor are generally better educated than the national average, with 83 percent having a high school degree, compared to 67 percent nationally.

“;In today's economy, we know that without education and skills, workers are not going to be able to advance and get those higher-wage jobs,”; Yuen said.

Catrina Manabe, a single mother of three, would agree.

Five years ago, Manabe said, she was on welfare and working at Kmart for $7.43 an hour.

She got her GED and took advantage of welfare-to-work programs, Pell grants and scholarships. This spring, Manabe will graduate from the University of Hawaii at West Oahu with a degree in public administration.

“;It was kind of hard for me,”; she said. “;I wasn't used to doing homework or projects with papers. But I got used to it. I made it work.”;

Now she is a full-time trainee in human resources at Pearl Harbor and will get a promotion that will allow her to support her family on her own once she graduates.

“;You can get better jobs with education,”; Manabe said. “;Pretty much employers out there are looking for a degree.”;

Nationally, the report found conditions worsened for the working poor between 2002 and 2006 and the number of low-income working families increased by 350,000.

The number of jobs with pay below the poverty threshold increased to 29.4 million, or 22 percent of all jobs, in 2006 from 24.7 million, or 19 percent of all jobs, in 2002.