Does work experience mitigate discrimination?

We test whether ethnic discrimination is heterogeneous by job candidates’ work experience. Fictitious applications are sent to vacancies. We find significant discrimination when candidates have no or little experience but no unequal treatment when they have twenty years of experience. •We sent 768 fictitious job applications in response to genuine vacancies in Belgium.•Five origins and three experience levels were randomly assigned to the applications.•We find significant discrimination when candidates have no or 10 years of experience.•We find no ethnic discrimination when candidates have 20 years of experience.•For each year of experience, the hiring discrimination lowers by 5.5 percent.