common (practice) / widespread / everyday occurrence

etc.

in the present context...

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Note added at 17 mins (2005-07-20 14:59:56 GMT)
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or \"come with the job\"

or \"are an occupational hazard\"

Not disagreeing with any the contributions made so far. Just contributing what I think is the exact equivalent:

Examples from UK sites:
Ageism, Racism and sexism are taboo in the workplace, but age discrimination is
*common currency*, 'ingrained in our psyche'
Talk of biological clocks is *common currency*, alongside feelings of emptiness
and loneliness.
While it may not be on everyone's tongue, it is *common currency* among those whose business it is to analyse 'New' Labour and its leader Tony Blair
What struck me about the use of this phrase it that it is *common currency* within
the practices of western avant-garde cultural practice
Both the traditional image of the rural, uneducated Galician that is *common currency* throughout Spain and Latin America


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Note added at 2 hrs 54 mins (2005-07-20 17:36:58 GMT)
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Peter Bergen in the New York Times:
AROUND the Islamic world it is common currency that Muslims are perpetual victims of Western and Zionist conspiracies.


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Note added at 3 hrs 30 mins (2005-07-20 18:13:29 GMT)
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And James Bowman in The New Criterion:
...to put an end to the poisonous political \"war\" culture, in America as in Britain, in which accusations of bad faith have become the common currency.