Nearly six in 10 families living below the poverty line in California are working families, according to a statewide study set to be released on Wednesday. That leaves California with more working families in poverty than in most other states.

The report issued by the California Budget Project, a think tank that focuses on of low-income residents, paints a grim statistical portrait of the working poor. It also issues a series of recommendations, ranging from broadening living wage laws to guaranteeing child care for low-income families.

Almost 30 percent of California’s 6.7 million working families with children had incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level of $18,392 for a family of four in 2002, the study found. The comparable figure for all of the United States was about 25 percent.

Meanwhile, more than nine out of 10 families with incomes between 100 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level (defined as “low-income”) included adults who had employment during the previous year.

The study found that Latinos made up 63 percent of California’s low-income working families with children, compared with 23 percent nationwide. Less than half the low-income working families contained a person with a high school degree or equivalent.

“Many of tomorrow’s workers are the children of today’s low-income families,” said Barbara Baran, California Budget Project associate director and the report’s author.

The report’s many recommendations include increasing the number of vocational and technical training programs, reining in fees at community colleges and directing more welfare payments to skills training programs.

The report also recommends requiring businesses that received economic development incentives to deliver promised jobs and investment, increasing the availability of affordable housing, guaranteeing child care to low-income families, and most controversially expanding the number and scope of living wage mandates.

Many of the recommendations would require additional state funding, which is now in short supply as the state seeks to close a projected $8.1 billion budget gap. As part of past budget-balancing efforts, student fees have been increased, while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed 2005-06 budget cuts health care for the poor and other social programs.