A Sydney mortgage broker and his wife paid a Filipina nanny just over $2.30 an hour to live and work in their $2.3 million CBD apartment, in conditions described by the Fair Work Ombudsman as "concerning".

The ombudsman is pursuing managing director of Award Mortgage Solutions Tony Lam and his wife Tiffanie Tong in the Federal Court for more than $155,000 in underpaid wages over a one year period under Australia's workplace laws.

Tony Lam and his wife paid a nanny just over $2.30 an hour to live and work in their multimillion-dollar apartment.

Mr Lam's agents in the Philippines contacted the nanny, 26, through online domestic help platform HelperChoice in March 2016.

She arrived in Sydney in May 2016 and began to live and work in the family home at Horden Towers on Pitt Street, according to the statement of claim lodged in the Federal Court on Tuesday.