The basic unit of Red Tai society is the family and is basically patriarchal, or maile dominated. The immediate family usually live together, and there is mutual respect for one another at all levels. They live, eat, and farm together with the women working alongside their husbands. Newly married couples often live with the girl's family until they are able to establish their own separate home. Wet rice farming dominates the Red Tai economy.
Rice is grown both as a dietary staple and for cash sales.
The Red Tai are noted for sharing the work equally. Both men and women plow, fish, cook, tend to the children, clean the house, and wash the clothes. When Vietnam made the transition to socialism, all levels of Tai society were affected. In addition, small-scale industrialization led to the entry of Tai peasant farmers into the Vietnamese working class. Socialism also brought in more medical schools and better hospitals.