City health-care workers protested outside of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Feb. 12, demonstrating against corporate tax breaks. On the other side of the issue, former venture capitalist Tom Perkins sparked an online firestorm last month after comparing the recent treatment of the richest Americans to Nazi persecution of Jews.

Seto, who drives for Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation Inc., hasn’t paid much attention to the inequality debate, even after a December incident in which demonstrators broke a window and slashed a tire of a Google bus in Oakland. Dressed in a dark suit that serves as his driving uniform and with stylishly spiked black hair, Seto said he likes the riders of his 56- passenger bus, and some even gave him wine, chocolate and gift cards for Christmas. Mostly, they keep to themselves, typing on laptops and phones, he said.

1980s Prices

Confidentiality agreements prevent Bauer’s and its employees from saying which companies they work for. On its website, Bauer’s lists Facebook, Yahoo! Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. among its recent clients.

Seto, who immigrated to San Francisco from Hong Kong 40 years ago, is fortunate in that he bought a house in the 1980s for about $150,000. Along with his wife, who is a city worker, Seto raised his two kids in that house, located in the Sunset neighborhood, a foggy area that juts up against the Pacific Ocean. Some of his Bauer’s co-workers have moved to cheaper areas like Stockton, about 80 miles away, and take long commutes before starting their routes.

“I was lucky at the time I bought it, and that’s why I can afford to live in the city,” Seto said. “I’ve been thinking about selling it but I changed my mind because my kids like it and I love living in the city.”

Middle Class

Most people in Seto’s income bracket are struggling in San Francisco as technology companies proliferate. Software engineers at Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter make on average $110,000 to $120,000 a year, not including bonuses, according to job website Glassdoor Inc. Mayor Ed Lee said in a recent interview with Time that middle class in San Francisco includes those making $80,000 to $150,000 a year.

Seto started driving in 2004 after closing his garment business -- cutting clothes for brands like Levi Strauss & Co. - - as that work moved overseas. He first drove vans for senior homes and soon landed work with Bauer’s, which was expanding after signing on with Google to transport workers from San Francisco to the search engine’s headquarters about 40 miles south in Mountain View. Seto spent about five years driving for Google, which now operates its own buses.

Seto’s current driving route for another technology company takes him through the Mission neighborhood, a traditionally Latino working-class area that’s been gentrified amid an influx of software developers and coffee shops that double as co- working spaces.